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A CULT
C U L I N A 1

Q. E D WA R D WA N G

Chopsticks

Chopsticks have become a quintessential part of the Chinese, Japanese,
Korean and Vietnamese culinary experience across the globe, with more
than one fifth of the world’s population using them daily to eat. In this
vibrant, highly original account of the history of chopsticks, Q. Edward
Wang charts their evolution from a simple eating implement in ancient
times to their status as a much more complex, cultural symbol today.
Opening in the Neolithic Age, at the first recorded use of chopsticks,
the book surveys their use through Chinese history, before exploring
their transmission in the fifth century to other parts of Asia, including
Japan, Korea, Vietnam and Mongolia. Calling upon a striking selection
of artwork, the author illustrates how chopstick use has influenced Asian
cuisine, and how, in turn, the cuisine continues to influence chopstick
use, both in Asia and across the globe.

Q. Edward Wang is Professor of History and Co-ordinator of Asian
Studies at Rowan University and Changjiang Professor of History at
Peking University, China.

Chopsticks

A CULTURAL AND
CULINARY HISTORY

Q. EDWARD WANG

Cambridge

UNIVERSITY PRESS

Cambridge

UNIVERSITY PRESS

University Printing House, Cambridge cb2 8bs, United Kingdom

Cambridge University Press is part of the University of Cambridge.

It furthers the University’s mission by disseminating knowledge in the pursuit of
education, learning and research at the highest international levels of excellence.

www.cambridge.org

Information on this title: www.cambridge.org/9781107023963
© Q. Edward Wang 2015

This publication is in copyright. Subject to statutory exception
and to the provisions of relevant collective licensing agreements,
no reproduction of any part may take place without the written
permission of Cambridge University Press.

First published 2015

Printed in the United States of America by Sheridan Books, Inc.

A catalog record for this publication is available from the British Library

Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication data
Wang, Q. Edward, 1958-

Chopsticks : a cultural and culinary history / Q. Edward Wang,
pages cm

ISBN 978-1-107-02396-3 (hardback)

I. Chopsticks. I. Title.

GT2949.W36 2014

394.i'2-dc23
2014021293

ISBN 978-1-107-02396-3 Hardback

Cambridge University Press has no responsibility for the persistence or accuracy of
URLS for external or third-party internet websites referred to in this publication,
and does not guarantee that any content on such websites is, or will remain,
accurate or appropriate.

To my mother who taught me to use chopsticks
in China and for my son who is using them in the
US, as the tradition lives on from past to present,
China and beyond.

Contents

Acknowledgments page ix

List of plates xiii

Timeline xvii

Map of East Asia xix

I Introduction i

2. Why chopsticks? Their origin and original function i6

3 Dish, rice or noodle? The changing use of chopsticks 41

4 Forming a chopsticks cultural sphere: Vietnam, Japan, Korea

and beyond 67

5 Using chopsticks: customs, manners and etiquette 93

6 A pair inseparable: chopsticks as gift, metaphor and symbol 120

7 “Bridging” food cultures in the world 144

Conclusion 166

Glossary 17 1

Bibliography 176

Index 185

vii

Acknowledgments

Researching and writing this book has been a pleasant experience
for me. I also would like to express, with pleasure, my gratitude to the
people who helped me in the process. I do not exactly remember when
the idea of writing a book about the history of chopsticks first came to
me. But I do remember that at the very early stage when I checked several
major library catalogs online, trying to look for any book or article on
the subject, I was quite surprised that essentially none had been written
in English, save for a few children’s books. This finding spurred me to
take on the task. At the same time, I also realized that I would have less to
draw on from existing scholarship. Fortunately, I received a prestigious
fellowship from the Institute for Advanced Study (IAS) at Princeton
in 2010, to work on a different (yet related) subject. With the kind
agreement and encouragement of Nicola Di Cosmo, professor of Asian
history at the IAS, I was able to pursue the initial research on this subject
instead. The excellent research facility and friendly and capable staff
at the IAS facilitated my work. The Gest Library at the neighboring
Princeton University also offered me important access to many useful
sources. Toward the end of my tenure at the IAS, I gave my first pres-
entation on the research. I am grateful to Professor Di Cosmo and my
fellow IAS members for their knowledge, help and comments, especially
Daniel Botsman, Fa-ti Fan, Marie Favereau-Doumenjou, Sarah Fraser,
Jinah Kim and Don Wyatt. During that period, I also sought advice and
suggestions from Professors Ying-shih Yu, Benjamin Elman and Susan
Naquin at Princeton University and Professors Paul Goldin, Xiaojue
Wang and Si-yen Fei at the University of Pennsylvania. In the following
academic year, while teaching as a visiting professor at the University of

Acknowledgments

Pennsylvania, I gave a presentation, entitled “Chopsticks: ‘Bridging’
Cultures in Asia.”

I also presented my research for the book at Brandeis University and
Rowan University (my home institution) in the US, and at Fudan University,
Peking University, the Institute of Modern History, the Chinese Academy of
Social Sciences and the National Library of Taiwan in Asia. Professor Aida
Y. Wong, an art historian of China and Japan, arranged my talk at Brandeis
University. A staunch supporter of the project from the beginning, Aida
loaned me books and helped me in finding illustrations for the book. My
talk at Fudan University in Shanghai was arranged by Professor Ge
Zhaoguang, then the director of the Advanced Research Institute for the
Humanities, and chaired by Professor Zhang Qing, head of the History
Department at Fudan. Zhao Xiaoyang and her colleagues at the Institute
of Modern History invited me to talk at the Chinese Academy of Social
Sciences. Presided over by Huang Ko-wu, director of the Institute of
Modern History, Academia Sinica, my presentation at the National
Library of Taiwan was the first lecture of the series “Center for Chinese
Studies Scholars Worldwide,” introduced by Keng Li-ch’un, Jane Liau and
the staff at the Center for Chinese Studies at the Library. Here I would like to
express my deep appreciation for all the above invitations, which were a
major encouragement for me in writing the book. I am also grateful to the
audiences for their enthusiasm and questions, which helped me to explore
more aspects of the history and culture of chopsticks.

I conducted the bulk of my research at Peking University where, since
2007 , 1 have taught in summers and winters as Changjiang Professor in
its History Department. As China’s leading university, Peking University
has a library which provided me with excellent access not only to its huge
source collections but also to several key databases, including Zhongguo
jiben gujiku and Hanji dianzi wenxian ziliaoku. When I gave my talk
on chopsticks culture on the campus in June 2013, I received useful
information and interesting queries from the audience. I would like
to thank the faculty and students at Peking University for their support
and assistance; especially Professors Li Longguo, Liu Qunyi, Luo Xin,
Rong Xinjiang, Wang Xinsheng, Wang Yuanzhou and Zhu Xiaoyuan.
Graduate students at Peking University, such as Zong Yu and Li Leibo,
also provided help for my research.

In completing the book, I owe my greatest gratitude to the History
Department at Rowan University. Before submitting my prospectus to
Cambridge University Press, I first presented it in the Department and
received warm encouragement and valuable suggestions from all my

Acknowledgments

colleagues. Corinne Blake, James Heinzen, Scott Morschauser and Joy
Wiltenburg kindly proofread several of the chapters and offered useful
suggestions for improving the prose. Rowan colleagues in other depart-
ments also helped my work. Yuhui Li, a native of Northwest China, taught
me a good deal about the dietary traditions and practices of the region,
as did Hieu Heyuen, who answered my questions about the dining customs
in Vietnam. Tomoyo Fukumori provided useful firsthand information
regarding the eating etiquette in Japanese society. She also helped me
gain a better understanding of the Japanese texts for my research. Her
assistance, therefore, was much beyond her duty as a student worker, for
which I am very grateful. At various stages, my writing of and research for
the book received encouragement from Bill Carrigan, our current chair in
the Department, and Cindy Vitto, dean of the College of Humanities and
Social Sciences at Rowan.

For my research, I visited several museums and private collections, and
interviewed food scholars in Asia, such as the special chopsticks collections
at the Lushun Museum in Lushun, the Sanxia Museum in Chongqing,
the Yangzhou Museum in Yangzhou, the Shanghai Chopsticks Private
Collection in Shanghai, China, the National Folk Museum of Korea in
Seoul, South Korea, the Museum of Chopsticks Culture in Kyoto, the
Tokyo National Museum and the Edo-Tokyo Museum in Japan. I am
indebted to the following individuals for those visits, as well as to the
museums, which helped provide useful images for illustrating the book and
enhancing my knowledge of chopsticks use: Ai Zhike, Chen Yunqian, Cui
Jian, Han Junshu, Li Yujie, Liu Junyong, Liu Li, Liu Shilong, Luo Lin,
Ouyang Zhesheng, Park Mihee, Wang Nan, Wang Rong, Xu Yue, Yu
Xiaohang, Zeng Xuewen, Zhao Yi, Zhao Yifeng and Zhou Yiping. In
particular, I would like to thank Mr. Lan Xiang for meeting and talking
with me in June 201 3 . A chopsticks collector of many decades and owner
of the Shanghai Chopsticks Private Collection, Lan is a prolific author on
chopsticks culture and history. It was a pleasure to meet him and I obtained
his permission for using some of the photos I took of his collection. Liu
Jianhui, professor at the International Center for Japanese Studies in
Kyoto, kindly accompanied me on my visit to the Museum of Chopsticks
Culture in Kyoto in July 2013. Though the Museum was closed, we
managed to find its owner Mr. Izu, with whom I had a brief conversation.
Our subsequent visit to the Chopsticks Shop, Ichihara-Heibei Shoten in
Kyoto, which has been in existence since 1764 and is one of the oldest
chopsticks shops in Japan, was also very fruitful. I thank the shop owner
for sharing with me an article featuring their store, which bears the

Acknowledgments

xii

interesting title “Chopsticks: A Tool that Bridges Food and Culture.” It
stresses that since chopsticks and bridge are pronounced the same in
Japanese, chopsticks are a means for cross-cultural communication and
exchange.

In addition, I would like to thank Han Jiang, Han Junshu (again!), Lim
Jie-hyun, Okamoto Michihiro, Pan Kuang-che, Dennis Rizzo, Sun
Weiguo, Xing Yitian, Zhou Bing and Zeng Xuewen who either helped
me find research materials or provided clues and/or answers to my queries.
On-cho Ng, Di Wang and two other anonymous readers reviewed my
original prospectus for Cambridge University Press and offered valuable
suggestions. Their ideas were useful for shaping and improving the
structure of the book, for which I am thankful. Marigold Acland at
Cambridge University Press, with whom I first discussed the idea of
writing this book, was a strong supporter of the project from the outset.
After completing the manuscript, I also received valuable help from Lucy
Rhymer, Marigold’s successor, and Amanda George at the Press. Without
their professional knowledge and assistance, this book would not be the
one it is now.

I essentially wrote this book for my mother and my son. To my mother,
I owe a debt for her teaching me how to use the utensil correctly all my life.
I also hope my son, who is old enough to use chopsticks, can carry on this
tradition, and pass it on to his children. Last but not least, I thank my wife
Ni who, a college professor herself, has a deep understanding of what it
entails for me to complete a task like this one. My appreciation of her
patience and support is beyond words.

Plates

1. Bone spoons unearthed at a Neolithic cultural site in Sichuan, China.
(Courtesy of Ai Zhike, the Sanxia Museum, Chongqing, China)

2. Neolithic bone chopsticks found in Longqiuzhuang, a Neolithic
cultural site in Jiansu, China.

(Courtesy of the Yangzhou Museum, China)

3 . Neolithic bone chopsticks (the two thin sticks in the lower part) in
Longqiuzhuang.

(Courtesy of the Yangzhou Museum, China)

4. This brick carving shows how chopsticks were used in early China,
c. first century ce.

(Zhongguo huaxiangzhuan quanji [Complete collections of Chinese
brick carvings], ed. Yu Weichao, Chengdu: Sichuan meishu
chubanshe, zoo6, p. yp)

5 . Eating customs in early China - sitting on the floor with foods placed
on short-legged tables, shown on a brick carving, first to third
centuries ce.

(Zhongguo lidai yishu: huihua bian [the Chinese art in different dynasties:
painting[, Beijing: Renmin Meishu Chubanshe, 1994, part i, p. jx)

6. Brick painting from the Fresco Tombs of the Wei and Jin Dynasty
showing chopsticks used as utensils for cooking in early China,

c. third-fifth centuries ce.

(Painting from the Fresco Tombs of the Wei and Jin Dynasty located
in the Northwestern Gobi desert 20 km from Jiayuguan city.

xiii

XIV

List of plates

(Mural paintings in Jiayuguan, Jiuquan tombs of the Wei and Jin
periods), ed. Zhang Baoxun, Lanzhou: Gansu renmin chubanshe,
2001 , p. z6i)

7. A food tray with wooden bowls and a pair of bamboo chopsticks
found in the Mawangdui Tombs, Han China, c. second century bce.
(Changsha Mawangdui yihao hanmu [Mawangdui # i Han tomb in
Changsha], Beijing: Wenwu chubanshe, 1973, n. p. lyi)

8. “Fire sticks” from Edo-period Japan - used to arrange charcoals and
stoke flames - are another example of how chopsticks could be used
other than as an eating utensil.

(Courtesy of the Edo-Tokyo Museum, Japan)

9. The Manchus usually combined the use of chopsticks with knives
and forks.

(Manchurian implements, c. lyth-ipth centuries. Courtesy ofLan
Xiang, a private collector of chopsticks in Shanghai)

10. Eating and drinking in a tent tavern portrayed in a fresco in
Dunhuang, a famous Buddhist grotto of Tang China, eighth-ninth
centuries.

(Dunhuang shiku quanji [Complete collections of Dunhuang Grotto
murals], ed. Dunhuang yanjiuyuan, Shanghai: Shanghai renmin
chubanshe, 2001, vol. 23, p. 43)

11. “A Picnic Outside” - a mural painting of the Tang Dynasty showing
that chopsticks were used to convey foods and that diners sat on the
benches instead of the floor, c. eighth century.

(DaTang bihua [Mural paintings of the great Tang dynasty], eds. Tang
Changdong & Li Guozhen, Xi’an: Shanxi liiyou chubanshe, 1996,
p. 127)

12. “Literary Gathering”, Zhao Ji (1082-1135). Handscroll, ink and
colors on silk, 184.4 ^ 12.3.9 cm.

(Courtesy of the National Palace Museum, Taipei)

13. “Han Xizai’s Night Banquet,” or “The Night Revels of Han Xizai”
(detail), c. 970, by Gu Hongzhong, showing that the Chinese sat
on chairs to eat individually rather than communally as in later
periods. Handscroll, ink and color on silk, 28.7 cm high,

335.5 cm wide.

(Courtesy of the Palace Museum, Beijing)

List of plates

14. A mural found in a tomb from Song China (960-1127) portraying a
couple, or the Zhaos, eating together at a table on high chairs,
suggesting communal eating had begun in the family after the tenth
century in China.

(Zhongguo mush bihua quanji: Song, Liao, Jin, Yuan [Complete
collections of Chinese tomb murals: Song, Liao, Jin and Yuan
dynasties], Shijiazhuang: Hebei Jiaoyu chubanshe, zoii,p. 86)

15. A family eating together at one sitting during the Jurchen period
(c. thirteenth century), suggesting the spread of a communal eating
style in Asia.

(Zhongguo mush bihua quanji: Song, Liao, Jin, Yuan [Complete
collections of Chinese tomb murals: Song, Liao, Jin and Yuan
dynasties], Shijiazhuang: Hebei Jiaoyu chubanshe, zoii, p. 114)

16. '"'Women 22” by Utagawa Kuniyoshi (1797-1862). The Japanese have
been accustomed to chopsticks since approximately the seventh century,
as shown in this Ukiyo-e painting, a popular genre in Edo Japan.
(“Women zz” by Utagawa Kuniyoshi [1797-1862], Public Domain)

17 “A Group of Trackers,” drawing by a European visitor to

eighteenth -century China depicting how the Chinese ate with chopsticks.
(From 'Views of Eighteenth Century China: Costumes, History,
Customs, by William Alexander & George Henry Mason, © London,
Studio editions, ip88, p. zy)

18. Portrait of Li-Lieu Ying, Empress Tzu-Hsi’s Great Eunuch, late
nineteenth century.

(Chinese School, nineteenth century. Private Collection / Bridgeman
Images)

19. “The Latest Craze of American Society, New Yorkers Dining in a
Chinese Restaurant,” Leslie Hunter (fl. 1910), Illustration from The
Graphic Magazine, 1911.

(Private Collection / The Stapleton Collection / Bridgeman Images)

20. Pairs of chopsticks to be packed into bento boxes in Japan.

(Author’s photograph)

21. Japanese “husband-wife chopsticks,” which are often painted with
lacquer. The pair for the husband are slightly longer and less colourful
than the pair for the wife.

(Author’s photograph)

XVI

List of plates

2.2.. Japanese festive chopsticks, shaped with two tapered ends and a
round body, reflecting the belief in humans and deities sharing food
together at one meal on holidays and at festivals.

(Author’s photograph)

23. Training chopsticks, a Japanese invention, ensure that a young child
can easily put the tool on his/her fingers and pick up food.

(Author’s photograph)

24. Using Japanese chopsticks to eat soba noodles and duck meat.

/© TOHRU MINOWA/a.collectionRF/ amana images inc. / Alamy)

25 . The fact that rice can be transported in clumps using chopsticks has led
to chopsticks becoming the main utensil used in Asia.

/© Keller & Keller Photography ! Bon Appetit / Alamy)

26. Chinese chopsticks, chopstick rests, porcelain spoons and bowls at a
market stall, Stanley Market, Stanley, Hong Kong, China.

/© Steve Vidler/ SuperStock / Alamy)

27. Decorative chopsticks sold in Japanese stores, which are more of a gift
than an eating implement.

(Author’s photograph)

28. Eating Chinese takeout with disposable chopsticks.

/© Kablonk RM/ Golden Pixels LLC / Alamy)

29. Couples dressed according to Han Dynasty customs eating together
in a group wedding ceremony in Xi’an, China.

/© Corbis)

Color plates are located between pages 92 and 93.

Timeline

Time

China

Korea

Japan

Vietnam

To 4000

Early humans

y Neolithic period

y Paleolithic and

Neolithic period

BCE

Neolithic period (Yangshao)

Neolithic periods

Crops

(Jomon)

Discovery of bone utensils

4000-1000

Neolithic period

/ Neolithic period

y Neolithic period

Neolithic period

BCE

Xia, Shang, Zhou dynasties

y Origin myths

Bronze Age

Oracle bone inscriptions / Writing
system

Bronze Age (bronze utensils)

1000 BCE to

Zhou and Warring States periods

y Bronze Age

y Neolithic period

Bronze Age

300 CE

Qin and Han dynasties

y Iron Age

(Jomon)

Iron Age

Silk Road

y Chinese Han military

y Yayoi Culture

Conquest by Han

Confucianism and Daoism

commendaries

y Origin myths

dynasty of China

Millet as staple in north and rice in

y Early Three Kingdoms

south

period

Spread of wheat flour foods

Shift from using fingers to utensils for
foods

300-600 CE

Fall of the Han dynasty

y Three Kingdoms period

y Kofun (Tomb)

Bronze Age

Buddhism

y Discovery of bronze

period

Iron Age

Period of Northern and Southern

utensils (spoons and

y Asuka period

Buddhism

dynasties

chopsticks)

y Buddhism

Chinese rule

Tang dynasty

continued

Spoons and chopsticks used as a set

Use of utensils for

of eating tools

food

Time

China

Korea

Japan

Vietnam

600-1000

/ Tang dynasty

/ United Silla

•/ Asuka period

/ Chinese rule

/ Spread of Buddhism
y Silk Road

•/ Wheat and millet were staples in
North China and rice in South China
Fall of the Tang dynasty

/ Goryeo period
/ Use of utensils for food

•/ Nara period
•/ Heian period
•/ Spread of Buddhism
•/ Japanese missions to
China

/ Introduction of
utensil use

/ Discovery of wooden
chopsticks

continued

1000-1450

•/ Song dynasty

/ Goryeo dynasty

•/ Late Heian period

/ End of Chinese

/ Liao dynasty

/ Jin dynasty

/ Xixia dynasty

•/ Introduction of Champa rice

•/ Mongol conquest and Yuan dynasty

y Neo-Confucianism

/ Ming dynasty

/ Development of communal eating
style

•/ Chopsticks became exclusive
eating tool

/ Joseon dynasty
/ Neo-Confucianism
/ Mongol conquest
/ Meat consumption
/ Metal utensils

•/ Kamakura and
Muromachi periods
•/ Chopsticks for food

rule

1450-1850

/ Ming dynasty

/ Joseon dynasty

/ Muramachi period

•/ Independent

/ Qing dynasty

/ Ming China and Joseon

•/ Unification of Japan

period

/ Porcelain soup spoon

against Japanese invasion
/ Spoon and chopsticks as a
set of eating tools

•/ Tokugawa period
•/ Edo period

•/ Le dynasty
against Champa

Russia /

Kazakhstan ^

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0 / ' ' Mongolia ^'* ! J un

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^'“'v _/' '^-w" -J ( VC\

0 r. ^ North Korea 5 \

i'i y J U

-' Tibctsn > O^angih^ *

iiufsian , o„^ Nanjing^ ^ W

>'v^ Bhutan /• , 4 ^

‘^\, Chongqing •Changsha J f

Nepal ''''S;'*’ J Fuzho^ S’

India ^ ouan^^

r-T\BurinayJv.

Ban'^adesh\ /'' (y a

[^Thailand 'winam J ^Philippines
\ I V^/a(l)-vf Vietnam Vi, PACIFIC

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Brunei

Introduction

Over one and a half billion people eat food with chopsticks daily. This is
the first book in English that traces the history of the utensil from ancient
times to the present day. The aim of this book is threefold. The first is to
offer a comprehensive and reliable account of how and why chopsticks
became adopted by their users and continued, as a dining habit, through
the centuries in Asia and beyond. The second is to discuss the culinary
impact of chopsticks use on Asian cookeries and cuisines and vice versa:
how the change of foodways in the region influenced people’s choice of
eating tools to aid their food consumption. And the third is to analyze the
cultural meanings of chopsticks and chopsticks use in the respective cul-
tures of their users. Chopsticks are distinctive in that though mainly an
eating implement, they also have many other uses. A rich and deep cultural
text is embedded in the history of chopsticks, awaiting our exploration.

Over many centuries, chopsticks have helped distinguish their users in
Asia from those in the rest of the world. So much so that some Japanese
scholars have identified a distinct “chopsticks cultural sphere” vis-a-vis the
other two spheres on the globe: those who feed with fingers, which was a
dining tradition for the people in the Middle East, South Asia and some parts
of Southeast Asia, and those who eat with forks and knives, or the people
who live in today’s Europe, North and South America, Australia, etc.^ Other
scholars, such as Lynn White, have also noticed this tripartite division among

^ Isshiki Hachiro, Hashi no Bunkashi: Sekai no Hashi Nihon no Hashi (A cultural history of
chopsticks: world chopsticks and Japanese chopsticks) (Tokyo: Ochanomizu Shobo, 1990),
36-40; and Mukai Yukiko 6c Hashimoto Keiko, Hashi (Chopsticks) (Tokyo: Hosei daigaku
shuppankyoku, 2001), 135-142.

Chopsticks: a cultural and culinary history

the finger-feeders, the fork-feeders and the chopsticks-feeders in the world.^
Centering on China, where the utensil originated, the chopsticks cultural
sphere encompasses the Korean Peninsula, the Japanese archipelago, certain
regions of Southeast Asia, the Mongolian Steppe and the Tibetan Plateau.
Thanks to the increasing global popularity of Asian foods in recent decades,
this sphere is expanding - people outside the zone have increasingly adopted
chopsticks while eating Asian foods. Indeed, in Chinese and other Asian
restaurants throughout the world, many non-Asian customers attempt the
use of chopsticks, with some showing admirable dexterity. In Thailand and
Nepal, where the traditional dining method is to use one’s right hand, it is
now increasingly common to see people use chopsticks to convey foods.

For many chopsticks users, employing this Asian eating utensil does not
just continue a time-honored dietary practice. They also believe its use
brings myriad benefits besides conveying food. Kimiko Barber, a Japanese-
English author living in London, wrote The Chopsticks Diet (Z009), in
which she argues that while Japanese food is by and large healthier than
Westerners’, the key to a healthy diet is not what you eat, but how you eat.
Chopsticks, she claims, bring such a benefit. “Eating with chopsticks slows
people down and therefore they eat less,” she writes. And eating less is not
the only benefit. Since one eats more slowly with chopsticks - by as much
as twenty more minutes per meal - by her calculation, “it also has,” Barber
proclaims, “the psychological benefit of making you think about the food
and the enjoyment you get from it.”^ In other words, eating with chop-
sticks helps you to appreciate food and turns you into a gourmet!

Others argue that there are even more benefits. Isshiki Hachiro, one of
the Japanese writers who coined the term “chopsticks cultural sphere,”
maintains that since chopsticks use requires brain-hand coordination
(perhaps more so than using other implements), it improves not only
one’s dexterity but ultimately also the development of one’s brain, espe-
cially among children. And Isshiki is not the only one who holds this
belief."^ Scientists in recent years have conducted experiments exploring.

^ Lynn White, a professor of history at UCLA, gave a speech, entitled “Fingers, Chopsticks
and Forks: Reflections on the Technology of Eating,” at the American Philosophical Society
meeting in Philadelphia on July 17, 1983, in which he discussed these different dining
habits. New York Times (Late Edition - East Coast), July 17, 1983, A-22.

^ Kimiko Barber, The Chopsticks Diet: Japanese-Inspired Recipes for Easy Weight-Loss
(Lanham: Kyle Books, 2009), 7*

^ Isshiki, Hashi no Bunkashi, 201-220. In their study of chopsticks, Mukai and Hashimoto
also describe how learning to use chopsticks helps children’s development of fine motor
skills. Hashi, 181-186.

Introduction

among other questions, whether or not habitually using the eating device
improves one’s deftness. Psychologists too have examined whether chop-
sticks manipulation among children could promote a higher level of
independence in eating. The findings in both cases are positive. In the
meantime, scientific research also suggests that while helping to develop
fine motor skills among children, lifetime chopsticks use might result in a
higher risk of osteoarthritis in hand joints among the elderly.’

To investigate and explain the various benefits as well as possible harms
associated with chopsticks use is certainly a worthwhile scientific under-
taking. Yet my goals are limited to the three I set out at the beginning; as
a historian, I shall mainly discuss the advantages and disadvantages of
chopsticks use in history and base my discussion on historical and archaeo-
logical evidence. To describe the multiple functions of chopsticks as a
social token, literary symbol, cultural artifact and religious object, I will
rely on literary sources, folklore and religious texts.

As an eating implement used across Asia for several millennia, chop-
sticks have shown their continuing utility and persistent appeal, even
though it requires some practice to wrap one’s fingers around them prop-
erly and put the tool to effective use. In the chopsticks cultural sphere,
such training usually begins in childhood. In more recent years, reflecting
Western cultural influence, forks and knives have increased their presence
in Asian countries, not only in restaurants frequented by Western custom-
ers. Meanwhile, the level of skillfulness among young Asians in proper
chopsticks use also is said to have declined. Having failed to receive
adequate instruction at home, where one traditionally learned how to
use chopsticks, many children nowadays simply apply the utensil in their
own way, however inelegantly. Nonetheless, compared to the other parts
of the world where many now depend on Western cutlery to transport
food, the base of the chopsticks cultural sphere remains intact and solid -
the utensil is indispensable to people in their day-to-day life. Moreover,
those living in the zone also expect outside visitors to use the implement, as

^ Sohee Shin, Shinichi Demura 6c Hiroki Aoki, "Effects of Prior Use of Chopsticks on Two
Different Types of Dexterity Tests: Moving Beans Test and Purdue Pegboard,”
Perceptual & Motor Skills, 108:2 (April 2009), 392-398; Cheng-Pin Ho 6c Swei-Pi Wu,
"Mode of Grasp, Materials, and Grooved Chopsticks Tip on Gripping Performance and
Evaluation,” Perceptual & Motor Skills, 102:1 (February 2006), 93-103; Sheila Wong,
Kingsley Chan, Virginia Wong 6c Wilfred Wong, “Use of Chopsticks in Chinese Children,”
Child: Care, Health & Development, 28:2 (March 2002), 157-161; David J. Hunter,
Yuqing Zhang, Michael C. Nevitt, Ling Xu, Jingbo Niu, Li-Yung Lui, Wei Yu,
Piran Aliabadi 6c David T. Felson, “Chopsticks Arthropathy: The Beijing Osteoarthritis
Study,” Arthritis & Rheumatism, 50:5 (May 2004), 1495-1500.

Chopsticks: a cultural and culinary history

it is the only utensil put on the table in most eateries. In Chinese and
other Asian restaurants outside Asia, simple illustrations on how to use
the eating device are often printed either on the chopsticks’ sleeves or on
the paper tablemat, encouraging all their patrons to experiment with it.

When were chopsticks invented and how were they originally used in
ancient China? Archaeological finds have yielded samples of bone sticks in
various Neolithic cultural sites in China, which suggests that prototype
chopsticks had appeared as early as 5000 bce, if not before. Yet if they
were indeed chopsticks, they might have not been used exclusively for
conveying food. Rather, those proto-chopsticks probably had a dual func-
tion: either as a cooking or as a dining utensil, or as both. This, interest-
ingly, remains the case in many Asian households; that is, chopsticks are a
convenient kitchen utensil to this day. For instance, when boiling food,
one can use (chop)sticks as stirrers and/or mixers. One, too, can use them,
in pairs, to pick up food contents in a cooking vessel in a pincer movement.
When one also transports the foodstuffs from the vessel to the mouth, then
the sticks one uses become an eating tool, or chopsticks. This is how food
experts generally believe chopsticks originated in ancient China. Historical
texts and research have shown that from the fourth century bce, eating
with utensils (chopsticks included), rather than fingers, gradually became
the preferred dining custom among the Chinese.'’

Once invented, both cultural and culinary factors played, distinctly or
relatedly, a part in enhancing chopsticks use, and utensil use in general. To
the Chinese and other Asians, using utensils to convey foods represents
cultural advancement, a point we will return to throughout the book. But
utensil use may also be essential if food is cooked and eaten hot. During the
Shang dynasty (1600-1046 bce), or China’s Bronze Age, bronze vessels in
the form of cauldrons and tripods were commonplace. Without a doubt,
these utensils were made for cooking, especially for boiling. Of course, one
can eat cooked food with fingers. But if the contents are immersed in the
broth, as is common with boiled food, then it is difficult. Moreover, it
seems the early Chinese not only preferred boiled foods, but they also liked
to eat them hot. To avoid scalding or soiling their hands, utensil use thus
became necessary. No definitive explanation, however, has been given as
to how and why this food habit - eating hot food - became favored among

^ Ota Masako, Hashi no genryii o saguru: Chiikoku kodai ni okeru hashi shiyo shuzoku
seiritsu {Investigation into the origin of chopsticks: the establishment of the habit of chop-
sticks use in ancient China) (Tokyo: Kyuko Shoin, 2001), 1-23; and Liu Yun et ah,
Zhongguo zhu wenhuashi (A history of chopsticks culture in China) (Beijing: Zhonghua
shuju, 2006), yoff.

Introduction

the Chinese, and remains so more or less to this day. The climate of North
China might be a factor, as it was (and is) mostly cold and dry except in the
summer, which made hot food gastronomically more agreeable. Stew
{geng in Chinese) was recorded as the most popular dish in historical
texts from ancient China. Meat consumption, which seems to have been
more prevalent in earlier times than in later periods, might be another, for
cooked meat becomes less palatable when it becomes cold.

Once utensil use became a dietary custom and accepted as a form of
culture, it appealed to peoples across various geographical zones. The
Japanese, for instance, do not necessarily prefer eating hot food as do the
people in North China, but they have been committed chopsticks users since
the seventh century. Vietnamese cookery features some hot dishes, even
though the region’s climate is much more warm and humid than North
China’s. It can be argued that the Japanese and the Vietnamese turned to
utensil use in eating mostly because of Chinese cultural influences. In the
case of Vietnam, which was ruled by imperial China for a millennium, this
cultural factor is particularly salient since most of their neighbors in
Southeast Asia traditionally consumed food with hands. By contrast, the
Viemamese have adopted chopsticks as a utensil for many centuries.

If one decides to use a utensil to eat, does it have to be a pair of
chopsticks? Not necessarily. Indeed, although the chopsticks cultural
sphere has existed in Asia from approximately the fifth century to the
present, the eating device was not the only one invented and used by the
people in the zone. Indeed, spoons and ladles, as well as knives and forks,
all appeared in the continent and were used as either cooking or eating
utensils. Moreover, according to archaeological finds and historical texts,
though invented early, chopsticks were not the earliest nor, for a long time,
the primary eating tool, even in ancient China, their birthplace. Spoons
were. More precisely, it was a dagger-shaped spoon, known as bi lA in
Chinese, that was used as the essential implement for eating among the
ancient Chinese (Plate i).

To understand why the spoon was initially a more important eating tool
than chopsticks, one needs to consider the types of food the Chinese and
other Asians consumed historically. Food historians tend to divide human
foods into two categories: grain and nongrain food. The former, appa-
rently, is more important because in many places, consuming a meal is
often equivalent to eating a grain cereal, be it rice, wheat, millet or maize.
Asians are no exception. In the Chinese language, fan is a rubric word
for all cooked grain food, even though in modern times, it usually
means “cooked rice.” Pronounced bap in Korean, [go]han in Japanese

Chopsticks: a cultural and culinary history

and co’m in Vietnamese, the word conveys the same meaning in those
Asian languages as well. As such, eating a meal in Chinese is simply chifan,
which literarily means “eating cooked grain (rice),” even though the meal
most likely also consists of nongrain food dishes, which are referred to as
cai. Likewise, gohan o taberu carries the same dual meaning in Japanese,
rather than just meaning feeding oneself with cooked rice. These similar
expressions suggest the importance of grain food in a meal. In fact,
nongrain food dishes - cai - in colloquial Chinese are sometimes called
xiafan, or “rice downers,” revealing that their principal function is to
help people ingest the grain food.

The spoon was the main eating utensil in ancient China because the
Chinese used it to transport grain food (not soup as in later times). By
comparison, chopsticks were the device designed initially for carrying
nongrain foods. As a dual set, these two instruments were termed bizhu,
or “spoon and chopsticks” in parallel, in Chinese literature for many
centuries. That the spoon precedes chopsticks in the word compound
suggests its primacy, extending the fan and cai relationship in food intake.
A reflection of this dining tradition can still be observed today, in the Korean
Peninsula, where the people use both a spoon and chopsticks as a set in
eating a meal. Like the dining custom of ancient China, the recommended
practice among Koreans is to apply the spoon in transporting grain food, or
rice, whereas chopsticks are used for nongrain dishes.

Yet the Koreans’ eating etiquette reflects more a cultural decision than a
culinary need, for as rice increased in popularity as a grain staple across
Asia, chopsticks became an effective tool to convey it in clumps to one’s
mouth. This is what most chopsticks users usually do these days, including
many Koreans on less formal occasions, such as in family dining. But
from ancient to Tang times (618-907), the dominant grain in North
China (and the Korean Peninsula) was millet, a hardy crop suitable for
the region’s climate. Unlike cooked rice, which is sticky and can be moved
in globs, millet is best cooked as porridge, which, as recommended by
Chinese ritual texts, made the spoon a better tool in transporting it.
Chopsticks, by comparison, were then mostly used to pick up foodstuffs
from a soupy dish, such as a stew.

If chopsticks were used as a secondary eating implement in ancient
China because their assigned function was to transfer only the nongrain
food, or the foodstuffs in a stew, this role soon changed. In fact, the change
began as early as the Han dynasty (206 bce to 220 ce), due to the growing
appeal of floured wheat foods, or noodles, dumplings and pancakes.
Archaeology has shown that the Chinese had long learned how to grind

Introduction

grains on mortars and pestles to make noodles. Indeed, the world’s earliest
sample of noodles has been discovered in Northwest China; made of millet
grains, it is over 4,000 years old. During the Han period, powered either by
humans or by animals, stone mills became widespread. And besides millet,
the Chinese also milled wheat, possibly due to the cultural influences from
Central Asia. Before milling became a widely accepted method in process-
ing wheat, the Chinese had consumed wheat whole by boiling it. Yet
without question, it was flour that turned wheat into a more popular
grain; by the end of the Tang dynasty, or the early tenth century, wheat
indeed had become important enough to shake the predominance of millet
in North China.

In addition to pancakes and buns, noodles and dumplings are two well-
liked forms of wheat foods, in Asia as well as in other parts of the world.
For eating these two foods, chopsticks were considered a better tool than
the spoon. In other words, thanks to the appeal of wheat foods, chopsticks
began to challenge the spoon’s primacy from approximately the first
century in China. Interestingly, food experts in the West have observed
that the pasta noodle’s popularity also caused Europeans, much later, to
use the fork and eventually other table utensils from the fourteenth century
onward. According to an Italian story, the fork had been introduced to
Europeans as an eating implement - as opposed to its being a kitchen tool
in Roman times - by a Turkish princess after she married a wealthy
nobleman from Venice in the early eleventh century. Yet it only became
widely used once Europeans grew accustomed to pasta. Indeed, according
to some research, medieval Turks not only used the fork but, at one time,
also chopsticks to eat pasta. ^ In any case, if the fork is the tool for handling
noodles among Europeans and others, chopsticks are the choice for
Asians, including those outside the bounds of the chopsticks cultural
sphere. In such countries as Thailand in Southeast Asia, people also tend
to use chopsticks to convey noodles whereas for other foods they use either
fingers or other utensils.**

Noodles are a grain food. Yet more often than not, people do not eat
noodles by themselves. They tend to mix them with something else, be it a

^ See Giovanni Rebora, Culture of the Fork, trans. Albert Sonnenfeld (New York: Columbia
University Press, 2001), 14-17; James Cross Giblin, From Hand to Mouth, Or How We
Invented Knives, Forks, Spoons, and Chopsticks and the Table Manners to Go with Them
(New York: Thomas Y. Crowell, 1987), 45-46; and Peter B. Golden, “Chopsticks and
Pasta in Medieval Turkic Cuisine,” Rocznik orientalisticzny, 49 (1994-1995), 71-80.

^ Penny Van Esterik, Food Culture in Southeast Asia (Westport: Greenwood Press, 2008),
xxiv; 54-55-

Chopsticks: a cultural and culinary history

soup, a sauce or sometimes meat and vegetables. In so doing, noodles
become a meal. In this mixture, the supposed fan and cai, or grain and
nongrain food dichotomy, comes unraveled. A good example in Asia is the
lamian (ramen in Japanese), a type of soup noodle that originated in China
but gained wide popularity throughout Asia in more recent centuries. The
noodle in the lamian/ ramen is made by stretching, or “pulling” as the word
la/ra suggests, the wheat dough many times into strands and strips, by
hand or by machine. But its appeal is due as much to the accompanying
soup, which is flavored with meat, vegetables, green onions, soy sauce
and other condiments. The Japanese ramen also typically has seaweed,
kamaboko (a fish cake sliced into pieces) and sometimes an egg. All of
this suggests that once seasoned, a noodle dish coalesces and blends
grain and nongrain foods into one. Similarly, a Chinese dumpling, which
wraps ground meat and vegetables with a thinly rolled dough skin, also
transcends the traditional grain/nongrain food divide. When these wheat
foods were consumed with the aid of chopsticks, the eating device effec-
tively rivaled the spoon (Plate Z4).

But the spread of wheat foods probably was only the story of North
China. In such regions as South China, where rice had been the staple grain
from time immemorial, the inhabitants probably had used chopsticks to
carry both the grain starch and the accompanying nongrain dishes for a
long time. In the Song period (960-1279), rice production grew consid-
erably in both North and South China, thanks to the adoption of a new -
early ripening - rice variety from Vietnam. The growth continued well into
the Ming period (1368-1644) and expanded also into Korea. The increase
of rice consumption during those periods reinforced and solidified the
foundation of the chopsticks cultural sphere. From the fourteenth century,
historical and literary sources reveal that chopsticks became the exclusive
eating implement for many. This change was especially notable among the
Chinese, since their dining tradition before had been to employ both spoon
and chopsticks together. Likely reasons for the exclusive use of chopsticks
in China were myriad, one being the broad adoption of the communal
eating style, with all diners sitting together at a square table. Once chop-
sticks were used in transporting both the grain and nongrain foods, the
utensil became the primary eating tool in the chopsticks cultural sphere.
As a result, the spoon was relegated to use for soup, with a modified design
(Plate 26). It remains so in China, Vietnam and Japan today.

Besides rice consumption, tea drinking, another distinct cultural tradi-
tion with an Asian/Chinese origin, might have also increased the appeal of
chopsticks as a table utensil. For although many tea experts like to savor

Introduction

the beverage by itself, it was/is also customary among tea drinkers to nibble
on some snacks or small dishes to go with the drink. These snacks and
appetizers are called either xiaoshi (lit. small foods) or dianxin-, the latter
is more commonly spelled as “dim sum” in English, meaning appetizers.
Both terms appeared in Tang China, thanks to the growing trend of tea
drinking. The custom of drinking tea while sampling a variety of small
dishes was to intensify and expand in the following centuries and continues
to this day. Most of these small dishes - pancakes, meat, shrimp or fish
balls, etc. found commonly nowadays in Cantonese restaurants around the
world - are best and customarily eaten with chopsticks. And chopsticks are
indeed often the most common utensil found in inns as well as in teahouses
in Asia (Plate 19).

Since chopsticks can be inexpensive (if made of bamboo or cheap
wood) compared to other utensils, chopsticks have become the most
used utensil in Asia also because they are cost-effective. In a sense, both
tea drinking and chopsticks use are habits that can be enjoyed by people of
different social backgrounds. Undeniably, class differences do exist in
practice. The rich, for example, can afford expensive tea and chopsticks
whereas the poor cannot. But whether rich or poor, one can drink tea to
relax and use chopsticks to eat. Indeed, as will be argued in this book, the
exclusive use of chopsticks as the eating tool, as well as the development of
communal eating, probably began with the lower social classes in Chinese
and other neighboring societies. As they are casual and informal, these
customs are more likely to be practiced first among the ordinary people
and gradually move upward to the members of the upper social strata.
That some Koreans use chopsticks - instead of the ritual-required spoon -
to transport rice in family dining and on other similarly relaxed occasions
might also help illustrate the point.

What about the knives and forks that had once appeared almost in
tandem with spoons and chopsticks in ancient China? In the Han tombs
unearthed by modern archaeologists, there are several cooking and
eating scenes portrayed on the walls. These stone paintings and carvings
show that knives and forks were then used as kitchen utensils, but not as
eating implements. And in the subsequent centuries, knives, or cleavers,
and forks retained this function without any change, till their being (re)
introduced as tableware by Europeans in modern times. In other words,
unlike chopsticks, which began as a cooking tool but later became a
table utensil, forks and knives failed to undergo such a metamorphosis
in China and neighboring regions. Again, culinary and cultural factors
played their part.

lo Chopsticks: a cultural and culinary history

Culinarily speaking, the popularity of the stew in early China is some-
thing worth our attention. A stew is generally made by boiling and simmer-
ing solid food ingredients in liquid and is served together with the gravy or
the sauce. Both historical texts and archaeological finds from Han China
suggest that during this period, if not before, the solid ingredients in the stew
were already cut into bite-size morsels before cooking. The knife used to cut
the meat thus could stay in the kitchen, since there was no need for it to be on
the table. As the morsels were small and in a broth, chopsticks were a more
effective tool than, say, a fork to pick them up.

One could, of course, say that meat was pre-cut into bite-size portions
because people preferred to use chopsticks. Roland Barthes (1915-1980),
the French linguist and literary critic who visited Japan during the 1960s,
indeed made such an observation, stressing that the food and the utensil
were complementary to each other:

There is a convergence of the tiny and the esculent: things are not only small in
order to be eaten, but are also comestible in order to fulfill their essence, which is
smallness. The harmony between Oriental food and chopsticks cannot be merely
functional, instrumental; the foodstuffs are cut up so they can be grasped by the
sticks, but also the chopsticks exist because the foodstuffs are cut into small pieces;
one and the same movement, one and the same form transcends the substance and
its utensil: division.^

Having observed closely how chopsticks were used in carrying the food,
Roland Barthes also speculated on the cultural significance of chopsticks
use by comparing it to that of the knife and the fork, the cutlery to which he
was more accustomed:

For the chopsticks, in order to divide, must separate, part, peck, instead of cutting
and piercing, in the manner of our implements; they never violate the foodstuff:
either they gradually unravel it (in the case of vegetables) or else prod it into
separate pieces (in the case of fish, eels), thereby rediscovering the natural fissures
of the substance (in this, much closer to the primitive finger than to the knife).
Finally, and this is perhaps their loveliest function, the chopsticks transfer the food,
either crossed like two hands, a support and no longer a pincer, they slide under the
clump of rice and raise it to the diner’s mouth, or (by an age-old gesture of the
whole Orient) they push the alimentary snow from bowl to lips in the manner of a
scoop. In all these functions, in all the gestures they imply, chopsticks are the
converse of our knife (and of its predatory substitute, the fork): they are the
alimentary instrument which refuses to cut, to pierce, to mutilate, to trip (very
limited gestures, relegated to the preparation of the food for cooking: the fish seller

Roland Barthes, Empire of Signs, trans. Richard Howard (New York: Hill and Wang,
1982), 15-16.

Introduction

who skins the still-living eel for us exorcises once and for all, in a preliminary
sacrifice, the murder of food); by chopsticks, food becomes no longer a prey to
which one does violence (meat, flesh over which one does battle), but a substance
harmoniously transferred; they transform the previously divided substance into
bird food and rice into a flow of milk; maternal, they tirelessly perform the gesture
which creates the mouthful, leaving to our alimentary manners, armed with pikes
and knives, that of predation/°

This long rumination serves well for discussing the cultural factors
influencing how and why chopsticks were turned into a table utensil
from early China. According to Roland Barthes, chopsticks are not “pred-
atory” in that their users do not treat food as “violently” as do those using
knives and forks. Barthes is not the only one who has put forward this
opinion. Upon seeing chopsticks on their trips to Asia in the sixteenth
century, many Westerners developed a similar impression, commending
the use of the utensil by Asians as a (more?) civilized dining custom.

Among the Chinese, this has become a cherished cultural belief. Raymond
Dawson, a sinologist who had a long career at Oxford, made a pithy state-
ment that for the Chinese,

No line so definitely divided civilized people from barbarians as that which separated
men who consume their food with chopsticks from those who used their fingers or in
later times such inferior instruments as knives and forks.”

Needless to say, this notion has not been entertained only by the
Chinese, but also by other Asians in the chopsticks cultural sphere, as
they all leave the knife in the kitchen rather than bring it to the table. A
simple way to trace the origin of this practice culturally is to look at the
remark made by Mencius (37Z-Z89 bce), a major follower of Confucius
( 5 5 1-479 bce), when he discussed one of the qualities of a “gentleman” or
a “superior man” (the term used in Confucianism to stand for an upright,
humane and often educated person):

“There is no harm in their saying so,” said Mencius. “Your conduct was an artifice
of benevolence. You saw the ox, and had not seen the sheep. So is the superior man
affected towards animals, that, having seen them alive, he cannot bear to see them
die; having heard their dying cries, he cannot bear to eat their flesh. Therefore he
keeps away from his slaughter-house and cook-room.””

” Ibid., 17-18.

Raymond S. Dawson, ed.. The Legacy of China (Oxford: Oxford University Press,

1971), 342-

Mencius, The Works of Mencius, trans. James Legge (New York: Dover Publications, Inc.,
1970), 141.

Chopsticks: a cultural and culinary history

We do not know how this comment contributed to the overall meager
presence of animal meat in traditional Asian cookery. But Mencius’ injunc-
tion that a true gentleman ought to stay away from the kitchen was
proverbial, not only in China but also around Asia, or at least within the
reaches of Confucian influence. To follow it through, knives were to be
used only by the cook in the kitchen to slice the meat into small morsels
before presenting it on the table. And this seemed exactly what Confucius,
Mencius’ master, had demanded when he was presented with a meat
dish.^^ Compounded by Buddhist influence, which is thought to have
developed in China around the first century, animal meat made even
rarer appearances in Asian foods because Buddhism shunned any killing.
If meat was used in cooking a dish, its main function, according to
Frederick Mote, the late professor of Chinese history at Princeton, was
“more often as flavoring for vegetables and as the basis of a sauce than as
the principal component of a dish.”'"^ This culinary tradition thus effec-
tively kept the knife inside an Asian kitchen for centuries. The absence of
the knife also made the fork less useful, for the latter’s utility, among
others, was to stabilize the meat for cutting.

Although the Chinese and other chopsticks users in Asia traditionally
believed their dining style to be more civilized than others’, it must be noted
that whether one eats food with utensils or with fingers is only a reflection
of cultural preference, rather than an indication of cultural sophistication.
Indeed, a refined dining style is more dependent on how one brings food to
the mouth than on whether and what instruments are applied. That is, in
every dietary tradition, there is a way to demonstrate an elegant eating
style vis-a-vis a coarse one; and how the two are differentiated often varies
from one place to another. In many regions where people eat with their
hands, for instance, they are often required to use only their right hand, as
the left hand is deemed unclean. Moreover, a refined style in dining with
hands, practiced in some places, is such that the diner only employs three
fingers (the thumb, the index and the middle fingers) instead of the whole
hand. In regions where Western cutlery is employed, sophistication in
dining is shown in how one applies the suitable utensil(s) to the desired
dish, be it salad, soup or the main course, accordingly and appropriately.

Confucius, it was said, “did not dislike to have his rice finely cleaned, nor to have his mince
meat cut quite small.” Confucian Analects, The Great Learning and The Doctrine of the
Mean, trans. James Legge {New York: Dover Publications, Inc., 1971), 232.

Frederick Mote, "Yuan and Ming,” Food in Chinese Culture: Anthropological and
Historical Perspectives, ed. K. C. Chang (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1977), 201.

Introduction

Over the millennia when chopsticks have been employed in trans-
ferring foods, a rule of etiquette has also been developed about how one
should hold and use them, properly and gracefully. The rules of etiquette
are surprisingly similar across the entire chopsticks cultural sphere.
First, chopsticks users generally believe that the most effective and
elegant way to hold the sticks is to place the lower one at the base of
the thumb and secure this position by resting it between the ring and
middle fingers in order to keep the stick stationary. Then the upper stick
is to be held like a pencil, using the index and middle fingers for move-
ment and the thumb for stabilization. In conveying food, the two sticks
are worked together to grasp the food for transportation and delivery.
Second, once one learns how to hold chopsticks, there is also general
agreement as to how the device is applied in clasping and carrying the
food. For instance, as nimble and flexible as they are, chopsticks are
not used to mine or dig for food in the bowl in search of a particular item,
nor to spear a food item (e.g. a meatball) even if it may be hard to pick
up in the pincer movement. It usually is a faux pas if the food item drops
or drips in the process of transfer. Since chopsticks are a widely used
utensil, their proper and skillful use has become an essential part of good
table manners in Asia.

Table manners develop to prevent distasteful dining behavior, lest
others’ appetite be affected. The development of the chopsticks etiquette
described above essentially stems from the same interest and concern. In
fact, one may argue that the invention and use of chopsticks has in part
been intended to prevent messiness in eating. In the modern Western
world, in addition to tableware, napkins are used to wipe one’s mouth
and hands as needed. When Europeans went to Asia in the sixteenth
century, they found that Asians used chopsticks instead to deliver bite-
size food morsels from the bowl to the mouth, without soiling their
hands.

Yet again, what is considered a neat and refined dining style certainly
varies to a degree from people to people, culture to culture. In the
chopsticks cultural sphere, for instance, since dropping food from the
chopsticks is generally frowned upon, chopsticks users have developed
various ways to prevent it from happening. One common approach is

Francesco Carletti, an Italian merchant, visited Japan in the late sixteenth century and
made such an observation: “With these two sticks, the Japanese are able to fill their
mouths with marvelous swiftness and agility. They can pick up any piece of food, no
matter how tiny it is, without ever soiling their hands.” Quoted in Giblin, From Hand to
Mouthy 44.

Chopsticks: a cultural and culinary history

to reduce the distance of the transportation. While eating rice with
chopsticks, therefore, the Chinese, the Japanese and the Vietnamese
customarily raise the rice bowl up to their mouths and push the grain
inside. But to Koreans and some of the Europeans who saw chopsticks
used for the first time, this dining custom looked much less elegant.
Koreans recommend instead the use of the spoon to transport rice, for
this reason as well as for preserving an ancient rite.

Whether used skillfully or not, chopsticks need to be operated together
in a pair. This unique quality, or the sticks’ inseparableness, together with
their design, color and material, have long helped the utensil to become a
popular gift, a cultural symbol and even a literary metaphor across Asia.
That is, chopsticks are not merely an eating implement. For their insepa-
rableness, for instance, chopsticks have had a broad appeal across Asia as a
wedding gift, and a token for exchanging affection between lovers and
expressing good wishes for couples. Chopsticks are used as a primary,
sometimes essential, item in wedding ceremonies among many peoples
across Asia. Love stories featuring chopsticks also appear in Asian folklore
and legends. In fact, as recorded in the stories and practiced still today at
weddings, chopsticks do not merely appear, but are an effective tool for
gesticulation. As such, literary writers have coined certain phrases, specific
to the ways chopsticks are used, and employed them in poems and stories
for vivid and graphic illustration. Lastly, the materials from which chop-
sticks are made also carry important social and even political meanings.
The wealthy, for example, tend to prefer expensive chopsticks, made of
gold, silver, ivory, jade, ebony and rare wood, to reflect and boost their
status - although ivory chopsticks, for historical reasons, were tradition-
ally a symbol of decadence and corruption. As they are fragile, jade chop-
sticks have not been used as a daily utensil. But they have appeared
frequently in literary texts, where the color and shape of jade chopsticks
are often compared figuratively to women’s tears!

As an ancient utensil with a long history, therefore, chopsticks have
evolved over time to become an adaptable tool, conveniently and crea-
tively used on both eating and non-eating occasions. This adaptability
has become their distinct characteristic, unmatched by other eating
instruments. Tsung-dao Lee, a Nobel Prize Laureate in Physics, made
an interesting comparison between chopsticks and fingers:

As early as the Warring States period Chinese invented chopsticks. Although
simple, the two sticks perfectly use the physics of leverage. Chopsticks are
an extension of human fingers. Whatever fingers can do, chopsticks can do.

Introduction

too. Moreover, their great talent is not even affected by high temperatures or
freezing cold.'*’

In more recent centuries, chopsticks have experienced yet more signifi-
cant changes. Thanks to modern technology, for instance, plastic chop-
sticks have become most common, surpassing the other varieties, as they
are both durable and economical. But wooden and bamboo chopsticks
remain popular, as do metal ones. In fact, durability sometimes is not
the only quality one desires today. Modern consumerism, which touts
consumption rather than saving and preservation, coupled with a height-
ened sense of hygiene, have made the use of disposable chopsticks - mostly
of cheap wood but sometimes also of bamboo - a new and rising trend in
Asia and around the world. No doubt, the popularity of plastic and
disposable varieties has made chopsticks use a global experience, adding
to the cross-cultural appeal of Asian foods, and Chinese food in particular
(Plate 28). The chopsticks cultural sphere, therefore, is growing, reaching
corners outside Asia and around the globe. At the same time, the overuse of
plastic and wooden materials has also given rise to environmental con-
cerns. As one of the world’s oldest utensils, chopsticks are sure to retain
their appeal for years to come.

Lee supposedly expressed this opinion on the use of chopsticks when he was interviewed
by a Japanese reporter. See www.chinadaily.c0m.cn/f00d/2012-o8/02/c0ntent_15640036.
htm.

Why chopsticks? Their origin and original function

If the stew be made with vegetables, chopsticks should be used; but not if
there be no vegetables.

Do not use chopsticks in eating millet.

Classic of Rites (Liji)

On April 5, 1993, an archaeological team from the Institute of
Archaeology of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences launched a series
of excavations of Neolithic ruins in Longqiuzhuang in present-day
Gaoyou, Jiangsu. By December 1995, the team had completed its fourth
and last dig of the 1,3 3 5-square-meter site. From the ruins, dated between
6600 and 5500 BCE, they unearthed over 2,000 objects, mostly tools and
utensils made of animal bones. Hailed as one of the ten new archaeological
discoveries of 1993, what distinguished this excavation from other
archaeological discoveries in Neolithic China was that forty-two bone
sticks were uncovered from the site - these sticks, Chinese scholars believe,
were the earliest chopsticks (Plates 2 and 3)!

Were they really chopsticks? What did they look like? According to the
team’s report, these objects were between 9.2 and 18.5 cm in length and
o. 3-0.9 cm in diameter. The sticks were thicker in the middle, with a
square-shaped top, and their bottom tapered off into a point.' Though
coarse, their appearance does indeed resemble chopsticks used today.

^ Longqiuzhuang yizhi kaogudui {Archaeological team of the Longqiuzhuang ruins),
Longqiuzhuang: Jianghuai dongbu xinshiqi shidai yizhi fajue baogao (Longqiuzhuang:
Excavation report on the Neolithic ruins in the east of Jiangsu and Huai River) (Beijing:
Kexue chubanshe, 1999), 346-347.

why chopsticks^ Their origin and original function 17

However, similar bone sticks had been found at other Neolithic sites, and
scholars generally regarded them as hairpins. In fact, the Longqiuzhuang
excavation originally ruled that the bone sticks were to be classified in this
fashion.

Nevertheless, Liu Yun, chief editor of A History of Chopsticks
Culture in China (Zhongguo zhu wenhuashi), believes that these bone
sticks were indeed chopsticks for two reasons. One is that the bone
hairpins were more polished and largely uniform in length and shape,
while the Longqiuzhuang sticks vary one from another. Though thicker in
the middle, their two ends are either round, oblate, square or flat, as well as
differing in size. The other is that, whereas the hairpins were usually posi-
tioned near the head at burial, these sticks were placed down near the hands,
along with other daily utensils such as pots and farming tools. Liu suggests
that these bone sticks were used as feeding instruments, i.e. chopsticks. This
assumption led Liu and others to reexamine some other Neolithic bone and
wooden sticks found elsewhere. These scholars concluded that though
originally deemed hairpins, like the Longqiuzhuang sticks, they, too, were
placed around the body, rather than the head, and thus were more likely to
be used as utensils for food.^ Still, questions remain: even if these sticks were
used in handling food, were they actually chopsticks? More precisely, were
they used in pairs and held by one hand to clasp food and carry it to the
mouth as in later times? It is hard to know for sure, and more evidence
is needed to ascertain whether the Longqiuzhuang finds are the world’s
earliest examples of chopsticks.

It is in the Bronze Age, or during the Shang dynasty (c. 1600-1046 bce),
that there seems to be clearer evidence that the Chinese began using chop-
sticks to prepare and eat meals. During the 1930s, archaeologists excavat-
ing in the Henan Province of North China uncovered six bronze sticks,
together with spoons and ladles, in the Shang capital ruins of Anyang.
Their number and placement suggest that they had been used in pairs like
tongs, although at about 1.3 cm in diameter, they were thicker than later
chopsticks. Moreover, archaeologists are less sure if they were used exclu-
sively for eating; some suspect that the sticks could well have been made for
metallurgical work.^ But more assume that these bronze pieces were
employed in cooking - stirring and mixing foodstuffs in a pot, or arranging
charcoals or firewood and poking the flame (Plate 6). In his The Food of

^ Liu, zhongguo zhu wenhuashi^ 52-55.

^ Chen Mengjia, “Yindai tongqi” (Bronze vessels in the Shang dynasty), Kaogu xuebao
(Journal of archaeology), 7 (1954); and Liu, Zhongguo zhu wenhuashi^ 92-93.

Chopsticks: a cultural and culinary history

China, E. N. Anderson observes that few tools are needed to cook Chinese
food: besides a cleaver, a chopping board, a wok or a pot, a wok shovel
or turner and a pair of chopsticks are sufficient. Chopsticks, in his words,
are used as “tongs, stirrers, whisks, strainers, rearrangers, and so forth.
Based on traditional practices, then, the idea that the Shang materials were
chopsticks seems to be reasonable, as they remain an essential cooking
tool in East and Southeast Asia, with people using them as whisks
(for beating eggs) and mixers (for blending ground meat and vegetables
as dumpling fillings).

Erom other Bronze Age sites in South and Southwest China, archaeol-
ogists have uncovered sticks that they believe were, in fact, feeding tools.
In Changyang, Hubei (located in the middle reach of the Yangzi River), for
example, a dig in the 1980s yielded two bone chopsticks that also belonged
to the Shang period. Likewise, a pair of ivory chopsticks - the earliest
examples of this type - dated in the Zhou period (1045-256 bce) was
uncovered in the same area. Additionally, bronze chopsticks were found in
Anhui (South China) and Yunnan (Southwest China). Between 0.4 and
0.6 cm in diameter, these objects were much slimmer than those found in
Anyang. Thicker and square-shaped on the top and thinner and rounded at
the bottom, these chopsticks look almost exactly like those in current
usage. Wang Shancai, an archaeologist who participated in the excavation
in Changyang, remarked:

The shape and design of the ancient spoons and chopsticks discovered in
Changyang are almost identical with the ones that we use today. The chopsticks
were quite polished, whose surface was even decorated with carvings. As of today,
the earliest chopsticks found by archaeologists were from the mid-Shang period,
proving that the Chinese had used chopsticks about 3,300 years ago and that the
level of technology in making them was also quite high.’

Significantly, Wang Shancai indicates that the spoon was another
feeding instrument used in ancient China. Both archaeological evidence
and literary sources have proven that the spoon indeed was the primary
tool the early Chinese used to handle food. Like chopsticks, spoons could
allow one to stir items cooking in a pot and convey them to the mouth.
Thus, when (chop)sticks first appeared during the Neolithic Age, the
spoon, or more precisely a dagger-shaped spoon - referred to as the bi
or chi in Chinese historical texts - had been well known in China. This type
of spoon, along with flint and bone knives, has been discovered in various

E. N. Anderson, FooJ {New Haven: Yale University Press, 1988), 150.

^ Liu, Zhongguo zhu wenhuashi, 92-96; quote is on 94.

why chopsticks!' Their origin and original function

Neolithic deposits throughout China. To date, the earliest hi has been
found in Peiligang in Wuyang, Henan, in North China, in 1977. Dated
between 8000 and 7500 bce, these hi were made of animal bones, and are
believed to have been used variously as a tool to cut meat, or to scoop
cooked food from the pot or bowl. Besides these hi spoons, two pottery
spoons were also present at the site. Compared with the bi, whose bottom
is pointed and looks like a tongue, the pottery spoon - called shao or si
in ancient Chinese - is rounder and oval in shape, more like a ladle.
Both the bi and the shao have a narrow handle at the top. To this day,
archaeological digs have yielded more dagger-shaped bi spoons than the
oval-shaped shao type. While the bi was mostly made of animal bone, the
shao could be made of other materials, including jade and ivory. They have
surfaced elsewhere, such as in Banpo, Xi’an, in the mid-1950s.

Knives and forks - made of bones and metals - have also been discov-
ered in Neolithic China, though in a much smaller quantity. With the
progress of time, fewer and fewer knives and forks were found in historical
sites, indicating that the Chinese gradually turned away from using them
(especially the knives) to eat food. The role of knives became limited to
food preparation from the late Zhou period on. Forks, mostly with
two tines instead of three or more, remained in use till the Han dynasty
(206 BCE to 220 ce) and later. The fork then was a kitchen utensil,
primarily for serving rather than for eating food.^ Chinese archaeologists
have offered an explanation for why knives and forks were not used as
feeding tools in traditional China. “The use of the fork had a close relation-
ship with the consumption of meat,” observes Wang Renxiang of the
Institute of Archaeology, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, “because
different from the spoon and chopsticks, the fork allows one to use strength
to convey food [meat]. In ancient China, the fork was not so common
because those who used it, or the ‘carnivores,’ were limited to the upper
class whereas most people were ‘herbivores.’ As the latter’s food seldom
contained meat, they did not need the fork.”^ While Wang’s point can be
qualified by the fact that the fork can be an effective tool for eating both

^ This ought not to be so surprising because in ancient Rome, the fork too was a kitchen tool.
Table forks were not introduced to Europe until the fourteenth century, and the earlier table
forks were two-pronged, like those used in the Roman kitchen, rather than three- or four-
pronged as we see today. Shu Tassei, Chugoku no Shokubunka (Food culture in China)
(Tokyo: Sogensha, 1989), 125-131; and Giblin, From Hand to Mouth, 45-56.

^ Wang Renxiang, “Shaozi, chazi, kuaizi: Zhongguo jinshi fangshi de kaoguxue yanjiu”
(Spoon, fork, and chopsticks: an archaeological study of the eating method in ancient
China), Xun’gen (Root searching), 10 (1997), 12-19.

Chopsticks: a cultural and culinary history

vegetables - such as a tossed salad - and meat, his statement about the
culinary habits of the ancient Chinese (and Asians) is supported by both
archaeological finds and historical studies. Not unexpectedly, the type of
food people eat determines the eating tools employed. There is good reason
to believe that the invention of utensils was related to one’s desire to cook
and eat food. That the Chinese - past and present - use chopsticks as both a
cooking and feeding tool offers a good example of this phenomenon.

In the development of human civilization, if one’s ability to control fire
constituted an epoch-making achievement, then the use of fire for cooking
marked another. In his survey of the history of food, Felipe Fernandez-
Armesto considers the invention of cooking the very first revolution
humans made regarding their changing eating habits.*^ Likewise, eating
cooked food, Harald Briissow reckons, enabled Homo erectus to become
Homo sapiens: the habit of eating cooked food “not only contribute[d]
substantially to food safety but it also reduced the advantage of big teeth.”
Besides the nutritional benefits for the development of the brain, “cooked
food requires much less cutting, tearing, and grinding than raw food,”
hence the reduction of tooth size among Homo sapiens!^

Eating cooked food, of course, does not necessarily mean eating hot
food. But if one intends to eat food hot, then using instruments becomes a
necessity, a point already made in the Introduction. Specifically, spoons
and chopsticks were invented and adopted in ancient China because the
people desired to eat hot food without scalding their hands. With an
implement, the Chinese could taste and eat food hot; the latter has become
an entrenched dining habit from ancient times to the present. While enter-
taining their guests, many Chinese today prepare several dishes to show their
hospitality. But they usually would not, observes Zhao Rongguang, an
expert on Chinese culinary culture, cook them before the guests’ arrival
because the host wants his/her guests to eat food hot, “right off the grill,”
or chengre chi (lit. to eat while it is hot), as the common Chinese phrase
goes.^^ By comparison, in parts of the world where people traditionally use

* Felipe Fernandez-Armesto, Food: A History (London: Macmillan, 2001), 1-24.

^ Harald Briissow, The Quest for Food: A Natural History of Eating (New York: Springer,
2007), 608.

Lynn White, the historian who observed the different dining methods around the world,
also believed that utensils are adopted because one intends to handle hot food. “Some
Reflections on the Technology of Eating,” New York Times, July 17, 1983, A-zz.

Zhao Rongguang, “Zhu yu Zhonghua minzu yinshi wenhua” (Chopsticks and Chinese
food and drink culture), Nongye kaogu (Agricultural archaeology), 2 (1997), 225-235.
This phrase has become a common expression of the Chinese while treating their guests
to a meal. A famous example is that when Henry Kissinger accompanied Richard Nixon

why chopsticks? Their origin and original function

their hand to transfer food, it is not customary to eat food hot. South and
Southeast Asians, for instance, often prefer meals at room temperature, as
do the people in the Middle East.^^ And though some have turned to
utensils on certain occasions, in South Asia, using the hand to move food
has been a long tradition well into this era. Consequently, climate and
ecology likely played a part in how a particular food culture developed.

From the Neolithic Age, China’s political and culture center was located
in North China, whose climate may be described as arid or semi-arid; the
winter being cold, while the rest of the year is dry, except in the summer. This
climate might have contributed to the abovementioned Chinese preference
for eating hot and juicy food, cooked either by boiling or by stewing. The
great number of bronze - as well as pottery - vessels from Shang China and
their shapes and sizes helped shed light on how the early Chinese prepared
and transported food. The most common food vessels in the Shang were
ding (tripod or quadripod), li (tripod with hollow legs), zeng (steamer), fu
(cauldron) and yan (steamer). As their names indicate, these vessels were
for boiling, stewing and steaming. If these were the primary ways of
cooking, then utensils (ladles, spoons and chopsticks) might be quite
useful, even essential, to mix, turn and stir the foodstuffs cooked in these
vessels, as some of them are quite large in size. Once the cooking was done,
utensils were again needed to serve the cooked food. Chopsticks might not
be the most convenient tool to serve food, but they were quite useful in
checking, stirring and tasting the food during cooking and, of course, eating
it afterwards. Another use of sticks in the kitchen was to employ them as
pokers or tongs for arranging the firewood underneath these vessels.
Referred to as “fire-sticks” in China and Japan (Plate 8), this is an early
example of chopsticks used on a non-eating occasion (cf. below).

It was said that King Zhou (1105-1046 bce), the last ruler of the Shang
dynasty, used a pair of ivory chopsticks to eat his fancy meals. This was
one of the earliest references, and also the most well-known, to the utensil’s

to China in 1972,, Zhou Enlai, China’s then premier, entertained them with a state dinner
and suggested to Kissinger that he first taste the Beijing Duck before it became cold.
J. A. G. Roberts, China to Chinatown: Chinese Food in the West (London: Reaktion
Books, 2002), 1 17.

Zhao, “Zhu yu Zhonghua minzu yinshi wenhua.” In her study of the export of Chinese
food to areas outside China, Kosegi Erino observes that the Eilipinos often like to eat
lukewarm food. ‘“Osoroshii aji’: taishu ryori ni okeru Chuka no jyuyou sarekata: Eilipin
to Nihon no rei wo chushinni” (“Terrible Taste”: the acceptance of Chinese food as a daily
food in the Philippines and Japan), Di 6 jie Zhongguo yinshi wenhua xueshu yantaohui
lunwenji (Proceedings of the 6th academic symposium of Chinese food and drink culture)
(Taipei: Zhongguo yinshi wenhua jijinhui, 1999), 229-230. The same is true among the
Arabs and others in the Middle East, observes Bee Wilson in his Consider the Fork, 203.

Chopsticks: a cultural and culinary history

existence in ancient China. Elephants and other large animals had once
roamed the warmer and more humid region of North China in ancient
times. But archaeological digs have yielded ivory chopsticks only from the
Zhou dynasty ( 1046-25 6 bce) rather than from the Shang period. The text
that described King Zhou’s use of ivory chopsticks also comes from the
Zhou period, attributed to Han Feizi (281-233 bce), a philosopher and
political strategist:

Of old, Zhou made chopsticks of ivory. Thereby was the Viscount of Ji frightened.
He thought: “Ivory chopsticks would not be used with earthen-wares but with
cups made of jade or of rhinoceros horns. Further, ivory chopsticks and jade cups
would not go with the gruel made of beans and coarse greens but with the meat of
longhaired buffaloes and unborn leopards. Again, eaters of the meat of long-haired
buffaloes and unborn leopards would not wear short hemp clothes and eat in a
thatched house but would put on nine layers of embroidered dresses and move to
live in magnificent mansions and on lofty terraces. Afraid of the ending, I cannot
help trembling with fear at the beginning.”

In the course of five years, Zhou made piles of meat in the form of flower-beds,
raised roasting pillars, walked upon mounds of distiller’s grains, and looked
over pools of wine. In consequence ended the life of Zhou. Thus, by beholding
the ivory chopsticks, the Viscount of Ji foreknew the impending catastrophe
of All-under-Heaven. Hence the saying: “Who beholds smallness is called
enlightened.”’^

In other words, if there were ivory chopsticks in ancient China,
they were regarded as extremely precious, or as a symbol of an extrav-
agant lifestyle. In King Zhou’s case, as reckoned by Han Feizi, his
luxurious taste caused his dynasty’s fall. Indeed, Han Feizi’s allegorical
reference to King Zhou’s flaunting his “ivory chopsticks” (xiangzhu)
also impacted the historical memory of Koreans. The scholars in
Joseon Korea (1392-1897) - the period which witnessed a high level
of Chinese influence in the Korean Peninsula - considered King Zhou’s
use of ivory chopsticks a stigma, symbolizing a profligate, decadent
lifestyle and wicked, corrupt government.’"*

Paradoxically, ivory chopsticks became a symbol of lavishness - and
thus more desirable - unlike other types in early China, which were made

Han Feizi, Han Feizi, “Yulao” (Illustrations of Lao Zi’s teachings), translations, with mod-
ifications, see wwwz.iath. Virginia. edu/saxon/servlet/SaxonServlet?source=xwomen/
texts/hanfei.xml&;style=xwomen/xsl/dynaxml.xsl6cchunk.id=d2.2i6(Ctoc.depth=i6(C
toc.id=o&doc.lang=bilingLial.

A search in the Database of Korean Classics (http://db.itkc.or.kr/itkcdb/mainIndexIframe.
jsp) yields fourteen mentions of xiangzhu appearing in official histories and other writings
from the Joseon dynasty.

why chopsticks? Their origin and original function

of less precious materials. Save for Koreans’ preference for metal chop-
sticks, implements of wood and bamboo have continued more or less
to this day in the chopsticks cultural sphere. However, archaeological
digs so far have not yielded many bamboo wooden chopsticks in ancient
China. One pair of bamboo chopsticks was uncovered in the Tomb of
Marquis Yi of Hubei in 1978. About 37-38 cm long and i. 8-2.0 cm wide
and dated c. mid-fifth century bce, the chopsticks were connected at one
end, thus looking more like pincers.^’ From the same region of Dangyang,
Hubei, another pair, about 18.5 cm long and composed of two separate
sticks, was discovered, dating to the fourth century bce.^'^ More quantities
of bamboo or wooden chopsticks were found in the Han period (206 bce
to 220 ce), which will be discussed in the next chapter. The archaeological
scarcity of bamboo and wooden chopsticks may be explained by the fact
that they decay much more easily than those made of bones, ivory, rhi-
noceros horn and metals (bronze, copper, gold, silver and iron).

Yet, historical texts from the Zhou to the Han period offer clear
evidence that bamboo and wood were the primary materials with which
chopsticks were made in early China. All the Chinese characters standing
for chopsticks, written either as ^ and ffi (both pronounced zhu), or
and (both pronounced jia), found in these texts have either the bamboo
or wood radicals, suggesting their absolute popularity as chopsticks ma-
terials. The pictography of these characters also tells us a good deal about
the use of chopsticks and their status as a tool. The first zhu contains the
meaning of “something bamboo” whereas the second zhu suggests that it
is a supplementary/assistant tool made of bamboo. The two jia likewise
show that chopsticks, like pincers, were applied to clutch and hold food-
stuffs. Despite the dearth of strong archaeological evidence, all these
characters, with their bamboo and wood radicals, clearly reveal that like
today, earlier chopsticks were made of more accessible and less expensive
materials such as wood and bamboo, rather than ivory, gold and bronze.

The frequency with which chopsticks appear in these texts suggests that
the utensil had become commonly used among the Chinese. Due to their
ubiquity, chopsticks were referenced conveniently to make a point, such as
the case of Han Feizi’s discussion of the alleged role ivory chopsticks
played in the downfall of the Shang. In the Xunzi, attributed to Xun Zi

Mukai & Hashimoto, Hashi, 3-4. It is worth noting that pincer-like chopsticks have also
been found in ancient Japan, though from a later period.

See Zhou Xinhua, Tiaodingji (Collection of food essays) (Hangzhou: Hangzhou chu-
banshe, 2005), 75.

2-4

Chopsticks: a cultural and culinary history

(340-Z45 bce), a contemporary of Han Feizi, chopsticks are further used
to help illustrate the importance of “Dispelling Obsession” (one of the
themes in the book). Xun Zi states:

If you look up at a forest from the foot of a hill, the biggest trees appear no taller
than chopsticks, and yet no one hoping to find chopsticks is likely to go picking
among them. It is simply that the height obscures their actual dimensions.'^

This passage indicates that it was commonplace for people to break off
twigs from lower parts of the tree and turn them into chopsticks. Indeed,
according to Chinese legends, chopsticks were first made by Da Yu,
founder of the Xia dynasty (2100-1600 bce), in exactly this way. As he
was in a hurry to fight the Flood, by which he would be selected as the
ruler. Da Yu supposedly seized a pair of twigs to help down his meal.
Although a fairytale, it illustrates that chopsticks indeed could be easily
made with makeshift materials. A similar account occurred several millen-
nia later, when the ruling Qing court ( 1 644-191 1 ) was defeated by Western
powers in 1900. Empress Dowager Cixi (1835-1908), the dynasty’s then
de facto ruler, fled Beijing. In her escape, while passing a village, she was
presented with a bowl of porridge. Unable to find her utensils, a servant
in her entourage made a pair of makeshift chopsticks using two small
sorghum stalks with which the Dowager managed to finish her meal.'*^
Thanks to the ease of making chopsticks, the Empress Dowager was saved
from an otherwise awkward moment. The Empress’s embarrassment would
have been due to the fact that it had long been a tradition for the Chinese to
eat food with utensils.

It is difficult to pin down the exact time when chopsticks were adopted
widely by the Chinese as an eating utensil. Given the recurrent mentions of
chopsticks in various texts from the Warring States period (475-221 bce),
one might reasonably guess that the utensil had become commonly used in
those centuries. Having drawn on the readings of those texts, Ota Masako,
a Japanese scholar who wrote a detailed study of the origin of chopsticks
in ancient China, agrees that it was during the late Zhou, or between the
sixth and third centuries bce, that using spoons and chopsticks gradually
became habitual among the Chinese.'®* If so, this transition seemed to take
a long time to complete. Eor historical texts show that long after the utensil

Xun Zi, Hsiin Tzu: Basic Writings^ trans. Burton Watson (New York: Columbia
University Press, 1963), 134.

The story derives from Wu Yong, Gengzi xishou congtan (The flight of the Qing court)
(Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 2009).

Ota, Hashi no genryu o saguru, 1-19.

why chopsticks!' Their origin and original function

2-5

had been invented and adopted into daily use, the early Chinese continued
using their hands to convey food. The Classic of Rites (Liji), a compendium
of rituals and etiquette for the upper social class, contains important
information on this transitional process. It is generally believed that the
Classic was first compiled by Confucius and his disciples in the late Zhou
and continuously edited and annotated by Confucian scholars through
the Han dynasty. Two dining instructions in the Classic of Rites deserve
special attention:

When eating with others from the same dishes, one should not try to eat [hastily] to
satiety. When eating with them from the same dish of the fan, one should not have
to wash his hands.

Do not roll fan into a ball; do not bolt down the various dishes; do not swill
down [the soup]. Do not make a noise in eating; do not crunch the bones with the
teeth; do not put back fish you have been eating; do not throw the bones to the
dogs; do not snatch [at what you want]. Do not spread out fan [to cool]; do not use
chopsticks in eating millet [emphasis added]. Do not [try to] gulp down soup with
vegetables in it, nor add condiments to it; do not keep picking the teeth, nor swill
down the sauces. If a guest adds condiments, the host will apologize for not having
had the soup prepared better. If he swills down the sauces, the host will apologize
for his poverty.

According to the first quote, fan, or cooked grain, was to be taken by hand,
not by a utensil, since the first sentence of the second quote also states “Do
not roll fan into a ball.” Obviously, one can only roll it with the hand. But
in this regard, why should one not wash one’s hands, as instructed by the
first quote? Zheng Xuan (127-200), a prominent Confucian scholar of the
Han period, when Confucianism became a form of learning, offered his
explanation, which was agreed with by Kong Yingda (574-648), another
renowned expert on Confucian teaching in the Tang dynasty. Zheng and
Kong both believed that instead of asking one not to wash one’s hands, the
Classic of Rites actually meant that one should carry fan in dry and clean
hands, not rub off dirt, sweat and water from the hands in front of guests,
lest such behavior affect their appetite.

A more intriguing issue, relevant to the original function of chopsticks,
is why the Classic of Rites teaches one to use hands to carry fan, but not
chopsticks. In other words, why did the early Chinese use both fingers and

Liji {Classic of rites) - “Quli I” (Summary of the rules of property part i), CTP, 47 & 48.
But in more recent years, scholars have challenged this interpretation. See
Wang Renxiang, Wanggu de ziwei: Zhongguo yinshi de lishi yu wenhua (Tastes of
yore: history and culture of Chinese foods and drinks) (Ji’nan: Shandong huabao
chubanshe, 2006), 47-51.

Chopsticks: a cultural and culinary history

utensils to consume meals? While the question deserves some explanation,
one may say at this juncture that it is common to see this mixed use (fingers
and utensils) in many cultures, even today. For example, while Europeans,
probably in the fourteenth century, began conveying meals with utensils,
they used their fingers to transport certain types of food as the occasion
demanded, as is still done today. The term “finger food” in English is a case
in point. That “finger food” covers a wide variety (ranging from miniature
pies, sausage rolls, sausages on sticks, cheese and olives on sticks, to
chicken drumsticks or wings, miniature quiches, samosas, sandwiches
and asparagus) shows that the custom of using the hand during meals in
the West is not only viable but also popular. In addition, it is commonplace
for most peoples in the world to bring bread to their mouth with the hand,
even on formal occasions. The people in the chopsticks cultural sphere,
indeed, might be an exception in that most of them nowadays are accus-
tomed to using a utensil to eat. They tend to only use fingers to eat snacks
such as nuts (e.g. peanuts), even though many of them are skillful enough
to accomplish such tasks with chopsticks.

In other words, whether one employs one’s fingers or a utensil to
consume a meal often depends on the type of food one eats. In ancient
China, chopsticks were not used to transfer millet. But why? From the
context, one can tell that millet was a type of fan. Was millet the only fan
consumed at the time? It seems not, for in early Chinese historical texts
from the Zhou period, there are terms like baigu (hundred grains), jiugu
(nine grains), liugu (six grains) and the most common, wugu (five grains).
These terms clearly suggest that as a cooked grain, fan could be made of
other cereals. What were they?

A famous reference to the “five grains” is found in the Analects, a text in
which Confucius’ disciples recorded his words and deeds. It reads as follows:

Zi Lu [a disciple of Confucius], following the Master, happened to fall behind, when
he met an old man, carrying across his shoulder on a staff a basket for weeds. Zi Lu
said to him, “Have you seen my master, sir?” The old man replied, “Your four limbs
are unaccustomed to toil; you cannot distinguish the five kinds of grain - who is your
master?” With this, he planted his staff in the ground, and proceeded to weed.

However, the Analects does not specify what was included in the “five
grains.” “Five grains” also appears several times in the Classic of Rites and
the Rites of Zhou (Zhouli), another important ritual text from the Zhou
times, but again with no taxonomic classification. About a century or so
later, Mencius (372-289 bce), a leading Confucian of the age, vaguely
mentions “five grains” in the Mencius: “The Minister of Agriculture

why chopsticks!' Their origin and original function

2-7

taught the people to sow and reap, cultivating the five kinds of grain. When
the five kinds of grain were brought to maturity, the people all obtained a
subsistence.”^^

Efforts to define the “five grains” were made first in the Han. The
Han dynasty was founded on the ruins of the Qin dynasty (221-206
bce) that had ended the Warring States period of the late Zhou and unified
China proper (centering on North China) in 221 bce. However, the Han
definitions of the “five grains” were inconsistent. In his explanation of
the “five grains” in the Mencius, for example, Zhao Qi (c. 108-201), the
leading Han commentator on the Mencius, stated that they comprised
“rice, foxtail millet (Setaria italica), broomcorn millet (Panicum milia-
ceum), wheat, and legumes.” By comparison, in annotating the ritual
texts like the Rites of Zhou and the Classic of Rites, Zheng Xuan,
Zhao’s contemporary whom we mentioned above, believed that the “five
grains” referred instead to “hemp, broomcorn millet, foxtail millet, wheat,
and beans.” Zheng here substituted hemp (ma) for rice. While hemp was a
fiber crop, its seeds were edible and indeed were eaten by the early Chinese
in the north and northwest where Zheng spent his life.^^ But when explain-
ing the term “six grains” in the Rites of Zhou, Zheng Xuan did not include
hemp among them, causing more confusion. Some modern scholars thus
have questioned Zheng Xuan’s definition. They have argued that even if
rice were not part of the “five grains,” the word ma would not refer to
hemp, but possibly to sesame, which too was written and pronounced ma
in Chinese. As a Central Asian crop, sesame entered China via the north-
west regions in Zheng’s time.^^

Despite the variation, it remains clear that millet was a main cereal crop
in North China, in addition to wheat, legumes and perhaps also rice.

Mencius, The Works of Mencius, 251.

Cf. He Julian, Tianshan jiayan: Xiyu yinshi wenhua zonghengtan (Dining on Mt. Tianshan:
discussions of food cultures in the Western regions) (Lanzhou: Lanzhou daxue chubanshe,
2011), 58, ■which discusses how hemp seeds were eaten in Turpan, or modern Xinjiang, in
ancient times.

N. A., Xianqin pengren shiliao xuanzhu (Annotated pre-Qin historical sources of culinary
practices) (Beijing: Zhongguo shangye chubanshe, 1986), 58.

Xu Hairong, Zhongguo yinshishi (A history of Chinese food and drink culture) (Beijing:
Huaxia chubanshe, 1999), vol. 2, 15. In modern Chinese, sesame is called zhima. Shinoda
Osamu, a Japanese scholar of Chinese food history, notes that “five grains” appeared most
often in Chinese texts because of the Daoist concept of “five elements/phases,” which made
“five grains” more popular than the “six grains” or “nine grains.” In other words, “five
grains” was a figurative term, defying a definitive taxonomy. Shinoda Osamu, Zhongguo
shiwushi yanjiu (Studies of Chinese food), trans. Gao Guilin, Sue Laiyun 6c Gao Yin
(Beijing: Zhongguo shangye chubanshe, 1987), 6-7.

Chopsticks: a cultural and culinary history

Millet, especially the foxtail millet, soybeans and rice are believed to have
been first cultivated in China. Rice, or Oryza sativa (Asian rice), was long
believed to be indigenous to South and Southeast Asia until the recent
archaeological excavation in Diaotonghuan Cave in South China found
the earliest domesticated rice remains, dating as far back as loooo and
9000 BCE. Others might be imports - wheat is native to Central Asia but
entered China during the Bronze Age, if not earlier, for its character
appeared in the inscriptions on the bronze vessels of the Shang dynasty.^'’
In addition to Diaotonghuan, located in modern Jiangxi Province,
the archaeological site in Hemudu of Zhejiang Province had rice remains
that were dated around 8000 bce. Then in Longqiuzhuang of Jiangsu
Province, where the first bone chopsticks surfaced, fossilized rice deposits,
dated between 6500 and 5500 bce, were also evident. These archaeolog-
ical discoveries prove that South China, or the regions of the Yangzi River
with plenty of rainfall, is the origin of Asian rice cultivation. But rice was
mainly, and remains so to this day, a southern crop in China, hence Zheng
Xuan, a northerner, excluded it in defining the “five grains.”

As a cereal, millet’s popularity is well documented. The Classic of Odes,
arguably the oldest literary source from ancient China that has survived,
describes millet, the foxtail, the broomcorn and other varieties, a total of
thirty-seven times, making it the most mentioned cereal crop in the text.
For example:

The Descendant’s stacks

Are high as cliffs, high as hills.

We shall need thousands of carts.

Shall need thousands of coffers

For broomcorn and foxtail millet, rice and spiked millet.’’’^

In fact, the Chinese god of agriculture was called Houji, or Lord Millet. The
Classic of Odes recorded a poem dedicated to Houji, which reads:

... He planted the yellow crop . . .

It nodded, it hung . . .

The black millet, the double-kernelled.

Millet pink-sprouted and white.

Francesca Bray, Science and Civilization in China: Biology and Biological Technology.
Parti, Agriculture (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1986), vol. 6, pt. 2, 434-449;
459-489.

Longqiuzhuang yizhi kaogudui, Longqiuzhuang: Jianghuai dongbu xinshiqi shidai yizhi
fajue baogao, 440-463.

Bray, Science and Civilization in China, vol. 6, pt. 1, 435.

why chopsticks^ Their origin and original function

2-9

Millet was also the most highly regarded grain food of the age. When
invited to a banquet, it was said, Confucius decided to eat the millet before
anything else, even though the host had actually intended him to use the
millet only to clean the skin of a peach. Confucius’ explanation was that
“millet is the most noble among the five grains and in sacrifices to the
ancestors it is an offering of supreme standing.” By comparison, he said,
“Among the six kinds of fruits, however, the peach is the lowest sacrificial
offering.”

Millet was so important and popular in ancient China with reason:
compared with other crops, it was most dry and drought-resistant, well
suited to the northern Chinese climate in the reaches of the Yellow River.
Indeed, although millet might originally have grown in semi-tropical areas
such as South China and Southeast Asia, it is almost certain that it first
became domesticated in North China. Ping-ti Ho, an expert on early
Chinese agriculture, has argued strongly that millet is native to the region,
or the high and low grounds around the Wei and Yellow Rivers which
he calls “the loess” and identifies as the cradle of Chinese Neolithic
civilization. K. C. Chang (193 i-zooi), the late professor of archaeology
and anthropology at Harvard who edited the first study of Chinese food
culture in English, also stated that species of foxtail millet (Setaria italica)
“grew natively in north China and were utilized by the Chinese from the
Neolithic period to the Chou [Zhou].”^' Since the early twentieth century,
archaeological excavations in the region, such as from the Yangshao
Neolithic cultural site in Banpo, Xi’an, have yielded many samples of millet
deposits.

There was a wide variety of millet cultivated in ancient China. In the
Essential Techniques for the Peasantry (Qimin yaoshu), a key text on
Chinese agriculture written by Jia Sixie (c. 386-543), there is a detailed
description of the variety of millets grown at the time:

There are all sorts of millet: they ripen at different times, they vary in height and
yield, in the strength of their straw, in flavour, and in the ease with which they
shed their grain. (The varieties that ripen early have short stems and give a good
yield; those which ripen late have longer stems and yield less grain. The strong-
strawed varieties belong to the class of short yellow millets, and those with
weaker straws belong to the class of tall green, white and black millets. Those

Han Feizi, Han Feizi jishi (“waichushuo zuoxia”), quoted in Roel Sterckx, Food, Sacrifice,
and Sagehood in Early China (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2011), 12.

Ping-ti Ho, “The Loess and the Origin of Chinese Agriculture,” American Historical
Review, 75:1 (October 1969), 1-36.

Chang, “Ancient China,” Food in Chinese Culture, 26.

Chopsticks: a cultural and culinary history

which yield a light crop are delicious but shed their grain easily; the large yielders
are unpalatable but productive.)’^

The proliferation of millet cultivation was also shown by the fact that in
Chinese writing, millet was referred to by multiple terms. The most
common ones, appearing in Shang oracle-bone inscriptions and the
historical documents from the Zhou period, were shu, su, ji and Hang,
though the character Hang could also refer to sorghum at a later time.
But what varieties of millet they actually stand for - it is generally
believed that shu refers to broomcorn millet whereas su to foxtail millet -
and how they relate to one another (e.g. whether or not su and ji both
stand for foxtail millet) remain uncertain.” Confusing as it is in nomen-
clature, the proliferation of millet in terminology attests to the crop’s
popularity. Indeed, all evidence points to millet being a dominant crop in
North China for at least a millennium, or from antiquity to about the
eighth century.

The above discussion gives us enough reason to believe that the fan
mentioned in the Classic of Rites was most likely millet, alone or mixed
with beans, wheat and other cereals.’'’ Still, the question remains: why
could not one eat millet with chopsticks? The answer seems to have
much to do with how millet was (is) cooked. From ancient times to the
present, most Chinese have usually prepared millet either by boiling or
by steaming, due to its small grains (smaller than rice). Once heated, they
stick together rather tightly, making it hard for air to pass through them.
Consequently, millet cannot be cooked like rice - which is brought to the
boil by applying high heat to the right amount of water, and then using
low heat to simmer it until the rice becomes soft and fluffy. Had millet
been cooked this way, or without sufficient water, the grains at the
bottom of the pot would have been burnt while those in the middle
would remain undercooked.

In classical Chinese, steamed millet seems referred to more as fan
whereas boiled millet - porridge or gruel - was zhou. This distinction
was already drawn in Zhou literature and reiterated from the Han
onward. “It was the Yellow Emperor [the legendary progenitor of the

Bray, Science and Civilization in China, vol. 6, pt. 2, 441.

Ibid., 440. The Hang millet was known for its large grain. It might be equivalent to German
millet in European languages.

A keyword search in the texts from the Zhou to the Tang in ZJGK finds that shufan
(broomcorn millet) and sufan (foxtail millet) appear ninety-two and seventy-three times,
respectively, whereas maifan (wheat steamed whole) appears 107 times, showing that
millet was the staple.

why chopsticks^ Their origin and original function

Chinese people],” so says a late Zhou text, “who began to steam grains
into fan as well as boil them into zhou."^^ The character zhou appears
in Shang and Zhou oracle-bone and bronze inscriptions whereas fan is
mentioned later in Zhou historical texts onwards. That zhou preceded
fan suggests that boiling was perhaps a more popular cooking method.
Studies of Shang bronze vessels also find that boilers, cauldrons and
tripods were invented before steamers. Modern scholars believe that
the designs of the steamers, such as zeng and yan, were an improvement
on the fu, or the cauldron, a widely found boiler among Shang and
Zhou bronze and pottery vessels. Both the zeng and yan have two parts;
the top part holds the food while the bottom is for applying heat and
producing steam. That is, these steamers were made by simply adding a
steamer basket onto the cauldron. Historical records reveal that the
zeng, which was small in size, was mainly used for steaming grain
food.^'’

It is quite possible that when the Classic of Rites instructed one to eat fan
with one’s hands, the fan was steamed millet, but not boiled millet:
compared with the latter, steamed millet was more solidified, allowing
transfer by hand. Accordingly, steamed millet was less economical, as it
took more time to cook and once ready, it was smaller in quantity. But this
seems to fit exactly with the nature of the Classic of Rites, which was
written mainly for the upper class. By contrast, the ordinary people prob-
ably could only afford boiled millet (zhou), porridge or gruel (with legu-
minous seeds and/or vegetables), to fill up their stomachs. But on festive
occasions, common people also liked to prepare grain food by steaming,
for making cakes and buns - still a practice in many Asian food cultures.

Using hands to convey food appears easy, but it actually requires more
etiquette. South Asians, for example, mostly use fingers to eat, reflected in
several dining taboos in their culture, most of which aim to prevent messy
dining and disgusting others. Thus, the Classic of Rites in ancient China

The quote was said to be from Zhoushu, or Yi Zhoushu, which was possibly from the late
Zhou, or the Warring States, period. It was quoted by Gao Cheng, a Song scholar, in his
Shiwu jiyuan (Origin of things), juan 9, ZJGK, 208. But Wang Chong, a Han philosopher
in his Lunheng (Discussive weighing), writing in the first century, also used the phrase “to
steam grain into fan,'" Lunheng - “Jiyan” (Auspicious portents), juan 2, ZJGK, 10.

Xu, Zhongguo yinshishi, 5 1-5 5 . That zeng was traditionally used to steam grain, such as
millet and wheat, was recorded in texts. See Wang, Lunheng - “Liangzhi” (The valuation
of knowledge): “The ripened grain is called su [foxtail millet]. After grinding it on the
mortar, then one steams it in zeng on fire to make it eatable.” Juan 12, ZJGK, 121. Tuo
Tuo, Songshi (Song history) - “Hu Jiaoshiu” (Biography of Hu Jiaoxiu) recorded: “there
was steamed wheat in the zeng” HDWZK, 11677.

Chopsticks: a cultural and culinary history

gave such meticulous and fastidious instructions about how one should use
one’s hands to handle cooked (steamed) millet. It is believed that as ritual
experts, Confucius and his disciples mostly used hands to eat their meals,
knowing how to do it properly. In the age of Confucius, aristocrats seemed
also accustomed to using hands to bring food to the mouth. A famous
example is Prince Song of Zheng State around the early seventh century
BCE; he is remembered in history for habitually moving his fingers when-
ever he saw an exotic and enticing dish.^^ In the Chinese language, the
index finger is known as the “food finger,” or shizhi, reflecting the residual
influence of the ancient dining custom.

But for many others, it might have been more convenient to use a
utensil, as they were mostly eating boiled grains anyway. In the Guanzi,
attributed to Guan Zhong (c. 723/716-645 bce), a political strategist,
advice is given that when eating in front of a teacher, a pupil should,
among others, use hands only to carry the grain, but not other foods.
That is, since a youngster might not have mastered the techniques of using
his hands to convey food, it was better for him to limit their use, lest his
improper method be chastised by the teacher.

The Classic of Rites does not specify how one eats zhou, or boiled millet.
But Kong Yingda, the Confucian annotator, believed that instead of hands,
one was supposed to employ a spoon. While annotating the sentence
“do not use chopsticks in eating millet,” he stated that the Classic
recommended one use a spoon, or hi. Living in a much later time than the

The story is found in the Zuo Commentary (Zuozhuan), a historical text emerging
around the same time as did the Classic of Rites and the Book of Etiquette and
Ceremonial. It records that during the fourth year of Duke Xuan {605 bce), someone
from the Chu State (located in the Middle Yangzi River region, or in South China)
presented a turtle to Duke Ling of Zheng State, just at the time when Prince Song and
his friend Zijia came to pay the Duke a visit. Seeing the turtle. Prince Song’s index
finger moved and he joked that: “If you see it move again another time, it means that I
shall taste something special.” However, after the turtle was cooked into a stew, Duke
Ling invited all the others to taste it, except Prince Song. Humiliated, Prince Song went
up and put his index finger in the tripod, tasted its soup, and stormed out. His act
angered Duke Zheng who vowed that he would kill Prince Song. However, a year later,
it was Prince Song and Zijia who conspired to have Duke Zheng murdered. Intriguing
and dramatic as it was, the story has evolved into a proverb/phrase in later ages. Prince
Song’s decision to dip his finger into the tripod and taste the food is abbreviated as
ranzhi yuding (lit. to soil one’s finger in the tripod), or simply ranzhi, which means that
one is not supposed to meddle in things without invitation. Zuo Qiuming, Chunqiu
zuozhuan (Spring and Autumn Annals and Zuo commentary) - “Xuan’gong sinian”
(Prince Xuan, 4th year), CTP, 2.

Guanzi, Guanzi - “Dizi zhi” (Duties of the student): “Don’t use the hand to eat gengf’
CTP, 4.

why chopsticks^ Their origin and original function

first writing of the Classic of Rites, Kong noted that millet was cooked in
two ways: steaming and boiling, and that millet cooked the former way was
eaten with hands and the latter by a spoon, for it was soggy.^^ Of course,
one could eat watery food - e.g. porridge - with the aid of chopsticks. To do
this, however, one needs to raise the bowl to the mouth and gulp down the
food, using chopsticks to shovel it when necessary. Needless to say, this
dining behavior was far from refined, resulting in the Classic of Rites ruling
against it. Undoubtedly, it had been done before (hence the injunction), just
as some still do it today. All the same, a spoon is a better tool for eating
millet porridge more elegantly, by scooping the food from the bowl, without
the need to raise the bowl to the mouth.

People turned to utensils, therefore, for several reasons: necessity, ex-
pedience and modishness. In ancient China, without a doubt, boiling was a
more popular way of cooking than steaming, as it was more economical
and convenient. Archaeologists have uncovered more boilers than steam-
ers among the bronze and pottery vessels from the Shang through the Han
dynasties. They have also discovered that in addition to fu (cauldron) and
ding (tripod), //', a smaller and more personal tripod, was another common
item. Compared with the bronze ding, which was used mainly to cook
meat, li were mostly made of pottery. Given its small size, archaeologists
believe, li was used by individuals to prepare cereal, or millet. Since the
early twentieth century, a great many li pottery fragments have surfaced in
Yinxu, Henan, the ruins of the Shang dynasty capital. These finds suggest
that li was a popular cooking utensil among the commoners, and is further
proof that more people boiled millet into porridge in early China.

According to historical records, boiled millet took various forms,
depending on how watery it was and whether other ingredients were used.
It ranged from zhan, a thick gruel, to zhou or yu, both meaning a thin

Kong explained that since chopsticks were not recommended for eating millet, then one
should use a spoon. Wang Renxiang, a modern scholar, believes that Kong Yingda
contradicted himself by stating that in ancient China, one used hands to transport fan
whereas here he said one should use a spoon. See Wang’s Wanggu de ziwef 50. But I do not
see any inconsistency because steamed millet could be picked up by hands whereas boiled
millet required with a spoon, for it was in a more liquid form.

While eating the popular Miancha (lit. noodle tea) in modern Beijing, a millet porridge
mixed with sesame, sesame oil and salt, it is customary and also recommended that one sip
the liquid directly from the bowl beneath the gel formed on the top that keeps its warmth
and taste. Using utensils would break the gel. See Cui Daiyuan, Jingweier (Beijing taste)
(Beijing: Sanlian shudian, 2009), 71.

Hu Zhixiang, “XianQin zhushi pengshi fangfa” (Study of the ways staple [grain] food
was cooked in the pre-Qin period), Nongye kaogu,, 2 (1994), 214-218.

Chopsticks: a cultural and culinary history

congee. Again, the Classic of Rites records: “Zeng-zi said, ‘I have heard from
my father that the sorrow declared in the weeping and wailing, the feelings
expressed in the robe of sackcloth with even or with frayed edges, and the
food of grain made thick or in congee, extend from the son of Heaven to
all.”'*^ Besides steamed millet, which was the noble’s and festive food, how
one cooked and ate millet might well have registered class differences: the
thick porridge was possibly more for the rich whereas the thin one was for
the less affluent. But this difference could not be absolute, for porridge was
(is) a suitable food for the dry and cold weather of North China.

As boiled grain was most common and best eaten with a spoon, it
became the primary utensil in ancient China. By comparison, chopsticks
seemed secondary, as they were not supposed to carry cooked grain. In
early Chinese, one character for chopsticks was zhu ffi, which had the
bamboo radical on top and the word “assistance/help/supplement” at
the bottom, revealing the supplementary role of chopsticks. The Classic
of Rites specifies the exact - and only? - occasion for one to use chop-
sticks: “If the stew be made with vegetables, chopsticks should be used;
but not if there be no vegetables. Stew - geng in Chinese - is made by
first boiling the ingredients in water. Like boiled millet porridge, a stew
was cooked in various ways in China. It could be a meat stew with a thick
sauce or a thin soup with only vegetables. The character geng it (with the
lamb radical) indicates that in its original form, geng must have contained
lamb or mutton. The Erya, the oldest Chinese dictionary, explains that
“meat (rou) could be called geng.” Besides lamb, ingredients in making a
geng also included beef, pork, chicken, duck and dog. These varieties
were indicated with a prefix, such as yanggeng (lamb stew), quangeng
(dog stew) and tungeng (pork stew). There was also xinggeng, which was
believed to be a meatless, vegetarian stew or broth. Yet a meat geng might
contain vegetables and other spices for better taste, making chopsticks a
useful tool in eating many types of geng.‘^‘^

These many varieties suggest that geng was a popular dish in ancient
China. Indeed, the Classic of Rites observes: “geng (stew) and fan (grain)

L// 7 - “Tangongl,” CTP, i4.Similarly, Mencius also confirmed the popularity of porridge:
“The ceremonies to be observed by the princes I have not learned, but I have heard these
points: that the three years’ mourning, the garment of coarse cloth with its lower edge even,
and the eating of congee, were equally prescribed by the three dynasties, and binding on all,
from the sovereign to the mass of the people.” The Works of Mencius, 236.

Liji- “Quli I,” CTP, 53.

Kong Yingda explained that if the geng had no vegetables, then people could drink it
directly. Cited and discussed in Wang, Wanggu de ziwei, 50.

why chopsticks? Their origin and original function

were eaten by all, from the princes down to the common people, irrespec-
tive of status.” In other words, the early Chinese not only boiled grains
into porridge and gruel, but they also liked to boil nongrain foods, making
stew the most common form of cai (nongrain food). The stew’s popularity
helped render chopsticks an important eating implement, for the Chinese
preferred to eat food hot. Besides a large number of cauldrons and tripods,
archaeologists have unearthed a variety of food warmers, or wending,
among Zhou bronze and pottery vessels. These food warmers confirm
the Chinese dietary preference. One could imagine that chopsticks were
used to stir, mix, clasp, try and eat the contents of the vessels. Indeed,
Chinese food scholars have postulated that it was due to the need to make
and eat geng that chopsticks were invented, first as stir sticks and then
chopsticks and more."^^

But what about in areas where millet was not the grain staple - as in
South China? Were chopsticks only used to transport nongrain dishes?
Actually, even in ancient times, diverse culinary traditions and food cultures
seemingly developed on the Asian mainland. The Classic of Odes describes
many eating occasions, as the following excerpt demonstrates:

The five grains are heaped up six ells high, and corn of zizania set out;

The cauldrons seethe to their brims; their blended savours yield fragrance;

Plump orioles, pigeons, and geese, flavoured with broth of jackal’s meat;

O soul, come back! Indulge your appetite!

Fresh turtle, succulent chicken, dressed with a sauce of Chu;

Pickled pork, dog cooked in bitter herbs, and zingiber-flavoured mince.

And sour Wu salad of Artemisia, not too wet or tasteless.

O soul, come back! Indulge in your own choice!

Roast crane is served up, and steamed duck and boiled quails.

Fried bream, stewed magpies, and green goose, broiled.

O soul, come back! Choice things are spread before you.

The four kinds of wine are all matured, not rasping to the throat;

Clear, fragrant, ice-cooled liquor, not for base men to drink;

And white yeast is mixed with must of Wu to make the clear Chu wine.

O soul, come back and do not be afraid!’***

Wang Renxiang, Yinshi yu Zhongguo wenhua (Foods and drinks in Chinese culture)
(Beijing: Renmin chubanshe, 1994), 16-17.

Zhao, “Zhu yu Zhonghua minzu yinshi wenhua.”

"If one intends to investigate the origin of chopsticks,” Wang Renxiang states, “one must
study the development of stew las a popular dish].” Wang, Yinshi yu Zhongguo wenhua^
270. Also, Zhao, “Zhu yu Zhonghua minzu yinshi wenhua” and Hu, “XianQin zhushi
pengshi fangfa tanxi.”

Chang, “Ancient China,” Food in Chinese Culture, 32-33.

Chopsticks: a cultural and culinary history

Depicting a variety of foods and prevalent cooking methods, this poem
shows that Wu and Chu cookeries were markedly different. Wu and Chu
referred to the reaches of the Yangzi River in South China - the Chu being
the middle part and the Wu the lower part. Yet, what was food culture
really like in South China? Unfortunately, neither the poem, except by
stressing its exoticness, nor most of the historical texts of the late Zhou
period, describe it in detail. Indeed, most of the historical literature from
ancient China surviving today was originally written, as well as annotated,
by the people in the north, which invariably resulted in a certain bias.

Modern archaeological and anthropological studies have shown that a
north-south divide had already appeared in Chinese agriculture and
agronomy from ancient days. This divide resulted from the geographical
and ecological differences between the northern confines around the
Yellow River and those further south around the Yangzi River. The two
great rivers exerted a considerable influence in shaping the agriculture and
foodways in the two regions - and respective sub-districts - throughout
Chinese history. In Joseph Needham’s magisterial Science and Civilization
in China, contributor Francesca Bray offers a succinct observation: “we
have distinguished two main agricultural traditions in China, the dry-cereal
cultivation of the North and the wet-rice agriculture of the South, each
characterised by distinctive crops, tools and field-patterns . .

If rice cultivation distinguishes the agriculture of South China from that
of North China, this is not manifested in extant historical literature. In
such ancient texts as the Classic of Odes, rice is mentioned about a dozen
times, much fewer than the appearances of millet. But in South China, rice
seems to have been the staple grain from antiquity. The archaeological
finds from Diaotonghuan, Hemudu and Sanxingdui, Sichuan (discovered
in the 1980s) all yielded convincing evidence that rice had long been a
leading crop in the Yangzi River regions. Moreover, the findings there
show that South China achieved a similar level of cultural development as
did North China in Neolithic times. “Even the earliest cultural stratum,”
comments Francesca Bray on the Hemudu Culture, “shows signs of con-
siderable technological sophistication, including well-made, finely decora-
ted pottery and complex carpentry work, and the sheer volume of the rice
remains shows that the inhabitants were not proto-farmers but relied
heavily on cultivated rice as a food supply.

Since rice played such a crucial part in advancing Chinese civilization
in the south, a brief overview of its role as a grain crop is in order.

Bray, Science and Civilization in China, vol. 6, pt. 2, 557.

Ibid., 485.

why chopsticks!' Their origin and original function

Throughout history, rice has been one of the most cultivated, as well as
most diverse, grains. “This grain,” exclaims Margaret Visser, an award-
winning author, “is the main sustenance of half the population of the
earth. If at this minute some catastrophe were to kill off all the rice crops
of the world,” she continues, “at least a billion and a half human beings
would suffer acute hunger, and millions would die of starvation before
anything could be done to save them.”^^ As indispensable as rice is in
today’s world, it seems to have played an even more important role in
pre-modern times. “For most of history - until the scientific recrafting of
wheat strains to produce today’s staggeringly efficient varieties - rice,”
writes food historian Felipe Fernandez-Armesto,

was hors de pair the world’s most efficient food: with traditional varieties, one
hectare of rice supports, on average, 5.63 persons, compared with 3.67 per hectare
of wheat and 5 .06 for maize. For most of history, the rice-eating civilizations of east
and south Asia were more populous, more productive, more inventive, more
industrialized, more fertile in technology and more formidable in war than rivals
elsewhere.

This is certainly the case in China. And if millet nurtured early Chinese
civilization in the north, rice played a similar role in developing the culture
in the south. As time went on, rice would occupy an even greater position
in Chinese agriculture and its food system.

Chinese historical texts mention rice’s importance in South China. The
Rites of Zhou, for example, acknowledges that “rice was a suitable crop” for
both Jingzhou and Yangzhou, which were located in the middle and lower
parts of the Yangzi River. In his Records of the Grand Historian (Shiji), Sima
Qian (c. 145-87 bce), the great Han historian who had travelled widely
throughout the land, concurs that “In States Chu and Yue [in the middle and
lower parts of the Yangzi River], where land was vast and people were few,
rice was the chief grain and fish stew the main dish [emphasis added] . ” Sima’s
description pits the foodway of South China against North China’s.

Was it the consumption of rice that turned the Chinese in the south to
use chopsticks more? Archaeology seems to suggest that there might be
some correlation, since more of these objects have surfaced in the historical
sites of South China. Longqiuzhuang, the site of the earliest chopsticks,
is located in Jiangsu Province, or the lower Yangzi River. And the

Margaret Visser, Much Depends on Dinner: The Extraordinary History and Mythology,
Allure and Obsessions, Perils and Taboos, of an Ordinary Meal (New York: Grove Press,
1986), 155-156.

Fernandez-Armesto, Food: A History, 105-106.

Chopsticks: a cultural and culinary history

Longqiuzhuang Culture was more closely related to those along the Yangzi
and Huai Rivers than to those along the Yellow River. Thus, it is likely no
coincidence that rice remains also surfaced in Longqiuzhuang. As men-
tioned above, from the Bronze Age through the Han dynasty, the majority
of chopsticks (bronze and bamboo) uncovered by archaeologists have been
in southern and southwestern Chinese sites, where rice was grown more
widely. These findings lead one to suspect that in South China, chopsticks
would have been a more practical means of eating as opposed to northern
traditions. That is, the people in South China possibly used chopsticks not
only to pick out foodstuffs in a stew, they also used them to eat rice - their
grain food.’^

Compared with other grains, then, cooked rice can be more easily held
and moved in clumps by chopsticks (Plate Z5 ). One could thus speculate on
the possible bond between eating rice and using chopsticks. Of course, rice
is a diverse crop. The most common types consumed in East and Southeast
Asia are the non-glutinous sinica (japonica) and indica, which are regarded
as ordinary. The glutinous rice, known in Chinese as nuo, in Vietnamese as
nep and in Thai as nieo, is more customarily used to make rice cakes and
other kinds of confectionery during festivals. Both sinica/ japonica and
indica, which have relatively translucent grains as opposed to the round
and opaque grain of glutinous rice, have appeared in Neolithic sites across
China proper but notably were more present along the Yangzi River.
Among other things, the two varieties are differentiated by their ripening
period, grain size and shape, and cooking characteristics. The sinica!
japonica, for instance, is softer and stickier than the long-grain indica.
Like millet, rice can be eaten whole or milled into flour: the ancient
Chinese used both methods.

But in contrast to millet, including its glutinous varieties, rice becomes
much more integrated once cooked, as its larger grains allow air to pass
through the boiling water. As a result, rice has a shorter cooking time than

Longqiuzhuang yizhi kaogudui, Longqiuzhuang: Jianghuai dongbu xinshiqi shidai
yizhi fajue baogao. For the nature of Longqiuzhuang Culture, see discussions in
Zhang Jiangkai 6c Wei Jun, Xinshiqi shidai kaogu {Neolithic archaeology) (Beijing:
Wenwu chubanshe, 2004), 173-176. Given that more chopsticks were discovered in the
south, Shen Tao hypothesized that the utensil originated in Yunnan of Southwest China,
which is cited, sympathetically, in Ota, Hashi no genryu o saguru^ 248-249, and Mukai &
Hashimoto, Hashi, 4-6.

Te-Tzu Chang, “Rice,” Cambridge World History of Food, eds. Kenneth F. Kiple &
Kriemhild C. Ornelas (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000), vol. i, 149-152.
In Chinese historical sources, sinica/japonica and indica rice are referred to as geng ® and
xian Sflij, respectively.

why chopsticks? Their origin and original function

millet, whether by boiling or by steaming. Though called non-glutinous
rice, both sinica/japonica and indica are more cohesive than millet after
preparation, making it much easier for one to hold small chunks with
chopsticks. Given the gluey nature of cooked rice, it would be inconvenient
to transport it by hand like steamed millet, for its grains would stick to the
skin. In some parts of the world where people do use their fingers to eat
rice, a basin of water is immediately available for washing. Admittedly,
another way to deal with the problem is to cook rice with oil; but this
would present the nuisance of having to wipe away accumulated grease.
Using chopsticks to eat rice, therefore, presents a solution to such incon-
venience. Of course, even if chopsticks can deliver grains efficiently to the
mouth, rice can stick on them, too. But it is easier to remove rice from
chopsticks, since they are smaller and thinner in size. As time went on, they
became pointed and polished, further eliminating such dining problems.

However, as stated in the Introduction, both cultural and culinary
factors play roles in determining whether or not one uses a utensil - and
which kind - to eat a meal. Consuming rice does not necessarily mean
having to use a utensil, nor must it be chopsticks. In Southeast Asia where
rice has long been the staple, only the Vietnamese have used chopsticks to
eat it; all others prefer using either their hands or a spoon and a fork. In
Thailand, for example, where in the past rice was eaten by hand, most
people now use a spoon to first scoop it from the bowl, and then push it
with the back of a fork held in the other hand, before finally bringing it to
the mouth. As for glutinous rice, which is difficult to eat with a fork and
spoon, people usually use their right hand to take a lump and form a small
ball, with a thumb-size indentation being made to hold sauces, condiments
and side dishes, before placing the prepared ball into the mouth. This
demonstrates that many ways of eating rice have developed. Using chop-
sticks is one of them, which is adopted more because of cultural influences
than practical needs.

In sum, drawing on both archaeological evidence and literary sources,
one can make some general observations about food culture in ancient
China, in relation to the story of chopsticks. First, although eating utensils
had been invented during the Neolithic Age, the early Chinese continued to
eat food with their hands (though preferably only the right hand per
custom). Indeed, this juxtaposition between using one’s hand and utensils

See Leedom Lefferts, “Sticky Rice, Fermented Fish, and the Course of a Kingdom:
The Politics of Food in Northeast Thailand,” Asian Studies Review^ 29 (September
2005), 247-258. Also, Van Esterik, Food Culture in Southeast Asia^ 21.

Chopsticks: a cultural and culinary history

to convey food persisted for quite some time. Second, boiling was the most
prevalent cooking method, followed by steaming, even though other ways
of cooking also appeared in early China. The Chinese boiled not only
grain, but also nongrain foods; the former took the form of porridge
(zhou), and the latter stew (geng). These forms determined whether and
what kind of utensils were used for eating. Third, the spoon was invented
first in early China to consume boiled food, since it contained sufficient
liquid. Shaped like a dagger with sharp edges, the spoon, or hi, would also
have been useful for cutting the meat in the stew. As such, the spoon was
the primary feeding tool, whereas chopsticks played a supplementary role.
Their main function was to grasp vegetables in a stew or a broth, but they
were not recommended for boiled grain food - such as millet. As for
steamed millet, people generally used their hands instead. Thus, the orig-
inal use of chopsticks was limited to eating cai (nongrain food), but not fan
(grain food); the latter was and still is the main type of food consumption in
China and elsewhere. However, in South China where chopsticks were
introduced as a utensil, people possibly used them to eat not only nongrain
foods, or the stew, as they were intended to, but also rice, the staple in the
region. Since most of the historical sources come from North China, it is
difficult to ascertain when this dining habit began; namely, how chopsticks
became a widely used, and even the exclusive, eating implement that one
sees in present-day Vietnam, Japan and most of China. But it certainly
would not take long for people to discover the effectiveness of chopsticks
in conveying cooked rice. From the Han period onward, as culinary
traditions experienced a marked change in North and Northwest China,
chopsticks would demonstrate even more versatility - a topic to be covered
in the next chapter.

See the instruction given by the Classic of Rites: “When the child was able to take its own
food, it was taught to use the right hand.” Liji - “Neize” (The pattern of the family), CTP,
76. For cooking methods in ancient China, see Chang, “Ancient China,” Food in Chinese
Culture^ 31.

Dish, rice or noodle? The changing use
of chopsticks

At your birth when they first hung out the bow, I was the most honored guest
at the birthday feast. Wielding my chopsticks I ate boiled noodles, and
composed a congratulatory poem on a heavenly unicorn.

Liu Yuxi (772-842.)

The discovery of a new dish does more for the happiness of mankind than the
discovery of a star.

Anthelme Brillat-Savarin, Physiologie du Gout (1825)

In his masterpiece, Records of the Grand Historian, Sima Qian relates
many fascinating episodes happening during the Han dynasty (206 bce to
zzo Ce), a great era in early imperial China. Some of them, interestingly,
feature chopsticks. In his biographical account of Liu Bang (256-195 bce),
Sima records that while preparing to seize power, Liu, who grew up in
northern Jiangsu near Longqiuzhuang and later became Emperor Gaozu
after founding the dynasty, once considered a strategic plan by a counselor
over a meal. But Zhang Liang (256-186 bce), his main and most trusted
advisor, opposed it. In order to persuade Liu, Zhang borrowed several
chopsticks and made a strong counterargument. And he prevailed in the
end; Liu decided to adopt his plan instead.^ Sima does not tell exactly how
Zhang used chopsticks to explain his objection. But the story has been well
remembered in history ever since. It reveals that Liu and his staff, among
others, used chopsticks in eating their food.

Chopsticks appear in another biography in the Records of the Grand
Historian. Its protagonist is Zhou Yafu (199-143 bce), a distinguished

^ Sima, Shiji - “Liuhou shijia” (Biography of Zhang Liang), HDWZK, 2040.

Chopsticks: a cultural and culinary history

and capable general under Han Emperors Wen (r. 176-157 bce) and Jing
(r. 157-141 bce), son and grandson of Emperor Gaozu. Thanks to his
remarkable accomplishments, Zhou became trusted by both emperors
during most of their reigns. But in the end, perhaps due to his arrogance,
Zhou lost Emperor Jing’s trust. Sima records an episode in which one
day Zhou was summoned to court to dine with the Emperor and found
a big chunk of meat in his food tray with no sliced pieces, nor chopsticks.
He turned around asking for chopsticks, only to be mocked by the
Emperor: “Was this treatment not good enough for you?” Eeeling insulted
and humiliated, Zhou thanked the Emperor and left the court without
touching the food. Seeing him leave. Emperor Jing sighed: “With that kind
of attitude, how can you continue to be my advisor?” A few years later.
Emperor Jing indeed found an excuse to have Zhou executed.^

These two stories demonstrate that by Han times, chopsticks had become
customary. Yet two issues seem worthy of more exploration. One is that in
both the stories, Sima Qian does not mention whether spoons were also
used or provided. As established in the previous chapter, spoons were the
primary eating tool among the early Chinese. The other issue is that when
Zhou Yafu saw the uncut meat in front of him, he turned around looking
for chopsticks, but according to the instruction of the Classic of Rites,
chopsticks were supposed to be only used for picking up vegetables in a
stew. The answer to the first question seems somewhat easier to find: until
then the Chinese still used their fingers to bring some types of grain food to
their mouths, not always using the spoon. As for the second issue, a possible
explanation might be that the Chinese had begun using chopsticks to handle
all nongrain foods. This chapter will discuss these two subjects - when the
Chinese adopted the custom of eating only with utensils and when they used
chopsticks to convey all food items in dishes - in detail, covering the period
from the Han to the Tang dynasty (618-907).

Over the past several decades, Chinese archaeologists have discovered a
number of tombs from the Han period. These excavations offer valuable
information on how the people then consumed their daily meals. The
Mawangdui Tombs, near Changsha, capital of Hunan Province, are an
important case. Unearthed between 1972 and 1974, the Mawangdui
tombs consist of three, which contain three members of one family headed
by Li Gang, the first Marquis of Dai in Changsha during 193-186 bce.
Of the three tombs, the first tomb discovered in 1972 was the most
spectacular because the body buried therein, identified as the Marquis’

^ Sima, Shiji - “Jianghou Zhou Bo shijia” (Biography of Zhou Yafu), HDWZK, 2078.

Dish, rice or noodlef The changing use of chopsticks 43

wife Xin Zhui - Lady Dai, who died around the age of fifty - remained
quite well preserved. Forensic archaeologists found that Lady Dai likely
died of a heart attack, triggered possibly by eating musk melons whose
seeds were found in her esophagus, stomach and intestines. Equally inter-
esting finds from the tomb were forty-eight bamboo cases and fifty-one
pottery vessels of various types that contained a variety of foodstuffs,
indicating that Lady Dai loved food in life. The grains found in the cases
and vessels included rice, wheat, broomcorn millet, foxtail millet and lentil.
Besides food containers. Lady Dai was surrounded by many lacquered
dinnerware and drinking vessels, and on top of one lacquered bowl, lo and
behold, lay a pair of bamboo chopsticks (Plate 7)!^

Besides the chopsticks, lacquered wooden spoons and ladles, which had
an oval-shaped deep bowl and a long handle, were also uncovered in the
tombs. The spoons look more refined whereas the chopsticks, with some
lacquered paint, seem rather simple. Mukai Yukiko and Hashimoto
Keiko, authors of a study of chopsticks in Japan, surmise that Lady Dai
used the chopsticks in life, but the more delicate spoons, bowls and other
utensils were possibly burial goods, or spiritual objects. They also suggest
that Lady Dai may have continued the custom of eating some foods with the
hands."^ The Mawangdui Tombs, of course, are not the only place where
spoons, chopsticks and other utensils have surfaced together. Archaeologists
have made similar discoveries in other Han tombs. Their being placed
together has made scholars believe that spoons and chopsticks became
increasingly employed as a set of tools for meals through the period.^ But
if this were the case, the relationship between the two utensils seems still
not as close and collaborative as that of forks and knives - one holds down
the food and the other does the cutting. The Chinese could use only either
one of them in conveying a meal.

Some of the Han tombs also contained stone reliefs and painted stones
in their chambers and passageways that portray cooking and eating
scenes. The stone relief found in Xindu, Sichuan, for instance, depicts a
feast scene: three men sitting on the floor with the man in the center
holding a pair of chopsticks pointed toward the food being presented by
the person on the left. On top of the food in the bowl held by the person
on the left is a pair of chopsticks (Plate 4). Moreover, two additional pairs
of chopsticks are placed on the big mat at the center of the floor.

^ Hunan Sheng Bowuguan (Hunan Museum), Changsha Mawangdui yihao Hanmu (The
first tomb of Mawangdui, Changsha) (Beijing: Wenwu chubanshe, 1973 )•

Mukai & Hashimoto, HtJs/?/, 9-10. ^ Liu, Zhongguo zhu wenhuashi,

Chopsticks: a cultural and culinary history

The famous Wuliang Shrine in Jiaxiang, Shandong, features another
eating scene painted on the wall. Named “Xing Qu bufu” (Xing Qu
feeding his father), the mural portrays Xing Qu, holding food with a
pair of chopsticks in his left hand and a dipper or ladle in his right,
presenting food to his father. A servant behind him holds another bowl
of food, indicating more food was prepared for the father. Without
question, this painting served to promote the Confucian ideal of filial
piety, which the Han dynasty officially endorsed.

These feast and feeding scenes confirm what the Records of the Grand
Historian suggests: chopsticks were a main eating tool in the Han period.
They also illustrate that although often buried together, chopsticks and
spoons were not necessarily used together in conveying food. The dipper
held by Xing Qu to feed his father could well contain the grain food for his
father to grasp with his own hand and deliver to his mouth, for it was
larger than the usual size of a spoon intended to bring food to the mouth.
The lacquer-painted spoons found in the Mawangdui Tombs also seem to
support the idea that some of them were not for personal use. Most of the
spoons were over 1 8 cm long (bowl + handle) and 6 cm wide (bowl), which
might be more suitable as a serving tool. In addition, the Mawangdui
Tombs contained a number of small bowls, which were oval-shaped,
shallow, with two “ears” or wings, one on each side. Archaeologists
have suspected that this type of bowl was used to hold ale/wine, soup or
watery food, for the two wings were obviously designed for one to grip by
hand and deliver whatever was inside the bowl to the mouth. In other
words, using these winged bowls to transport food, e.g. millet porridge,
one did not need a spoon.

If during the early Han period the dining custom in China remained
more or less unchanged from the previous ages - the Chinese used
utensils and hands alternately in transporting foods - a notable change
occurred toward the end of the Han, beginning in the second century.
This change led to the increased use of utensils, which eventually
replaced fingers. In Chinese literature, feeding utensils were referred to as
bizhu (spoon and chopsticks). One of the earliest mentions of bizhu is in
Chen Shou’s (233-297) History of the Three Kingdoms (San’guozhi), a

^ H. T. Huang states that during the Han, “fingers were used for rice, chopsticks for viands
and spoons for soups.” See his “Han Gastronomy - Chinese Cuisine in statu nascendi,"
Interdisciplinary Science Reviews^ 15:2 (1990), 149. Though largely correct, this statement
overlooks the fact that spoons were also used for eating such loose grains as millet before
and during this period.

Dish, rice or noodle^ The changing use of chopsticks

historical account of the fall of the Han and the rise of the Kingdoms of Wei,
Shu and Wu in its ruins during the third century. Chen begins by describing
the decline of the Han dynasty, attributing it to the manipulation of young
emperors by both eunuchs and military strongmen. Dong Zhuo a

powerful general, is recorded as an early example of the latter. According
to Chen, to intimidate his opponents and exercise full control of the Han
court, Dong once invited other ministers to a dinner party, at which he
punished a group of war prisoners by cutting out their tongues and eyes and
amputating their limbs in front of everyone. Having witnessed such horror,
many “dropped their spoons and chopsticks as they were trembling with
fear,” while Dong calmly ate his food and drank his wine.^ Chen’s graphic
description reveals that at the time, or toward the end of the Han, spoons
and chopsticks were used more as a set in transferring food.

This is not the only time Chen Shou mentions spoons and chopsticks in
the same breath. A more proverbial incident occurred at another dining
occasion, or between Cao Cao (155-2Z0) and Liu Bei (161-223), future
founders of the Kingdom of Wei and Kingdom of Shu. Cao, a military
strongman who exercised power and influence at the Han court after Dong
Zhuo, invited Liu to a dinner meeting. Though a member of the Han royal
family, Liu at the time was Cao’s junior both in age as well as in power.
Before the meeting, Liu had been given a secret decree by the reigning Han
emperor to find a way to kill Cao. At the dinner just as Liu was ready to eat,
Cao toasted him: “Well, as I see it, you and I are the only two heroes in the
country. All others are really nobody.” Afraid that Cao had discovered his
conspiracy, wrote Chen, “Liu dropped both his spoon and chopsticks on
the floor,” out of shock and fear.*^

It is unclear from these stories whether or not the people involved
employed spoons and chopsticks exclusively in conveying food, or still
used their hands on occasion. But from then - the third century - to the
early twentieth century, bizhu or chizhu, its variation (chi is shaped more
like a modern spoon, with a shallow bowl and a long and curved handle,
usually longer than the one on the bi), became a stock phrase in Chinese
texts, used in many texts across various genres whenever an eating occa-
sion was depicted or recorded.^ (Details are omitted here to save space but
some examples are given in later chapters.) This suggests that from no later

^ Chen Shou, Sanguozhi (History of the Three Kingdoms) - “Dong Zhuo, Li Cui, Guo Fan”
(Biographies of Dong Zhuo, Li Cui and Guo Fan), HDWZK, 176.

^ Chen, San’guozhi - “Liu Bei” (Biography of Liu Bei), HDWZK, 875.

^ Bizhu appears a total of 1,232 times and chizhu 492 times in the texts in ZJGK.

Chopsticks: a cultural and culinary history

than the third century, eating with utensils, shunning one’s hands, had
become a preferred custom, or a social norm, among the Chinese.

As chopsticks were effective extensions of the fingers, their flexibility
was instrumental in helping the Chinese to cease using their hands for
eating meals during this era. Sima Qian’s story of Zhou Yafu disclosed
that in Han times, the function of chopsticks had already extended
beyond picking up just vegetables in soups as had been prescribed by
the Classic of Rites. But for chopsticks to become an efficient tool to carry
all foodstuffs in the nongrain dishes, it was necessary to cut the food into
small morsels for the utensil to clasp and pinch and for the mouth to bite
and chew. As some Shang bronze vessels were large in size, one could
assume that in the Bronze Age, the early Chinese had cooked large lumps
of meat. Once cooked, the meat could be bitten off, though more deli-
cately when guests were present. Hence the Classic of Rites suggests that
while eating with guests, “meat that is wet [and soft] may be divided with
the teeth, but dried flesh cannot be so dealt with.”^° This shows that
biting off cooked meat was socially acceptable, but gnawing on large
pieces of dried meat was not.

During the twilight years of the Zhou period, a new culinary practice
seems to have appeared, appealing first to the cultured class: cutting and
slicing meat into desirable portions and arranging them properly for a
better visual presentation and dining experience. Confucius, as a cultural
master, was known for being meticulous about whether or not meat was
minced into the right size. “He did not eat meat,” his students observed,
“which was not cut properly, nor what was served without its proper
sauce.” In fact, Confucius’ eating preference is best characterized as fol-
lows: “He did not dislike to have his rice finely cleaned, nor to have his
mince meat cut quite small.”

Could the new culinary practice of cutting meat into small pieces
have arisen because of the scarcity of animal meat at the time? It is hard
to know one way or another. But historical texts reveal that the Zhou
government did discourage meat consumption, especially beef, for cattle
and water buffalo were valuable in helping with farm work. Other land
animal meats, such as lamb, pork and even dog, were also reserved for
special occasions. The Classic of Rites, therefore, contains the following
injunction:

Liji - “Quli I,” CTP 48. Confucius, Confucian Analects, 232.
Xu, Zhongguo yinshishi, 29-36.

Dish, rice or noodlef The changing use of chopsticks

Without sufficient cause, a prince did not kill an ox, nor a great officer a sheep, nor
another officer a dog or a pig, nor a common person eat delicate food.

The advice given by the Mencius appears more stringent:

Let mulberry trees be planted about the homesteads with their five mu [a unit in
measuring land], and persons of fifty years may be clothed with silk. In keeping
fowls, pigs, dogs, and swine, let not their times of breeding be neglected, and
persons of seventy years may eat flesh [emphasis added].

As consuming the meat of larger land animals became regulated, the
Chinese turned to smaller ones, such as chicken, pheasant and ducks
whose meat hardly required much cutting. Thus the practice of slicing
meat into bite-size morsels might also be the default choice, besides being
the cultural preference. But the latter was undoubtedly important. During
the Han dynasty as Confucianism gained ascendancy to become an official
ideology, the general populace perhaps also adopted Confucius’ dining
preferences as the norm for demonstrating cultural refinement.

The finds at Mawangdui Tombs again help to shed light on culinary
customs during Han times. A total of 31Z inscribed bamboo slips, or
proto-books in ancient China, were uncovered from the burial sites.
Some of these “books” were indeed recipes, offering information not
only on cooked food but also on cooking methods. We know from them
that “roasting, scalding, shallow-frying, steaming, deep-frying, stewing,
salting, sun-drying, and pickling” were ways of cooking practiced during
this age. But the recipes also show that stewing - or cooking geng - was
most popular. The gewg/stews described on the bamboo slips were broken
down into two groups: meat stew and mixed stew. The former included
nine different recipes, made respectively of ox, sheep, deer, pig, suckling
pig, dog, wild duck, pheasant and chicken. The latter, mixing meat with
grains and/or vegetables, such as beef and rice, had even more variety:
“deer meat-salted fish-bamboo shoots, deer meat-taro, deer meat-small
beans, chicken-gourd, crucian carp-rice, fresh sturgeon-salted fish-lotus
root, dog meat-celery, crucian carp-lotus root, beef-turnip, lamb-turnip,
pork-turnip, beef-sonchus (a wide grass), and dog meat-sonchus.”^^
Specific as they were, these recipes did not detail whether, in stewing larger
animal meats, one should slice them into small portions as with other,
smaller meats (chicken, duck, pheasant, etc.). But possibly people did, as
almost all the stews mixed many ingredients, which would work better if
they were in similar sizes.

Ying-shih Yu, “Han,” Food in Chinese Culture^ 57-58.

Chopsticks: a cultural and culinary history

“The whole culinary art of China,” summarized Lin Yu-tang, a famous
writer of twentieth-century China, “depends on the art of mixture.”^"*
When food items were prepared in similar sizes and cooked together in
a pot, chopsticks became the best tool for eating them, irrespective of
whether they were meat, vegetable or something else. This culinary art
seems already well established in the Han. Thus upon seeing a big piece of
uncut meat, Zhou Yafu looked for a pair of chopsticks, but not a knife or a
dagger-shaped hi, even though chopsticks clearly were not the right tool
to help him eat the meat. Zhou had possibly already become accustomed
to eating nongrain foods, including meat dishes, with chopsticks.

Since the Chinese had eschewed knives and forks very early on, it could
be daunting and awkward for them to handle a huge piece of animal
meat. In Sima Qian’s Records of the Grand Historian, another story in
the biography of Liu Bang is worth citing here. When Liu Bang was still
gathering his forces, Xiang Yu, then his chief rival, invited him to a
banquet at Hongmen, near modern Xi’an. But it was a trap because
Xiang, whose force then was larger than Liu’s, intended to annihilate Liu
and his entire entourage. Having realized the dangerous situation. Fan
Kuai, Liu’s bodyguard, burst onto the scene. Xiang challenged him by
giving him a half-cooked pig leg. Unfazed, Fan carved the leg with his
sword on his shield and devoured it. His courage intimidated Xiang. As
Xiang hesitated, Liu Bang seized the moment and found an excuse to
escape from the situation, saving his life. In the end, it was Liu who turned
around and defeated Xiang, establishing the Han dynasty.^’ The banquet
at Hongmen, therefore, became the most remembered one in Chinese
history, for Xiang’s failure in killing Liu at the site tipped the balance of
power against him, resulting in his ultimate defeat and death. Interestingly,
Fan Kuai’s heroism was displayed by overcoming a big piece of meat!

Handling big pieces of meat in the Han became heroic and courageous
because during this period, it had gradually become a custom to cook meat
in small, bite-size morsels. One story recorded by Fan Ye (398-445), a
post-Han historian, helps illustrate this point. A person named Lu Xu was
involved in a conspiracy against the court and was arrested. His mother
sent a meal to him in jail. Passing it to Lu, the warden did not tell him who
had cooked it. As Lu Xu was eating the stew, he broke down in tears and
told the warden that the meal had to be cooked by his mother. Asked how
he knew, Lu answered: “When my mother cooks a stew, she dices meat

Quoted in Chang, “Ancient China,” Food in Chinese Culture^ 31.

Sima, Shiji - “Xiang Yu benji” (Biography of Xiang Yu), HDWZK, 312-3 13.

Dish, rice or noodlef The changing use of chopsticks

into exact cubes and cuts scallions into the same inches. So I know this stew
must be made by her.”^^ All these charming stories help establish that in
Han China, as cooked items were cut into bite size pieces, chopsticks had
extended their utility and were used to convey all nongrain foods, no
longer just the vegetables in the stew.

But the expansion of the utility of chopsticks did not stop here, for in the
Han, a new and different “culinary revolution” also occurred, pertaining to
the grain food people then ate. This “revolution” was powered and char-
acterized by milling wheat into flour and cooking doughy foods. As noted
before, the earliest sample of noodles has so far been discovered in China. In
the Neolithic cultural sites across North China, archaeologists have located
saddle querns and rubbing stones, suggesting the people had ground grains.
However, in the middle and late Neolithic Age, the Yangshao Culture
(5000-3000 bce) near Xi’an and the Dawenkou Culture (4040-2Z40
bce) in Shandong failed to produce a stone grinder. Food historians have
speculated that by that time, people had turned to steaming and boiling
cereals whole, instead of grinding them.^'^

Boiled or steamed wheat was called maifan in Chinese. It denotes the fact
that wheat, like rice and millet, was cooked whole. But maifan was known
to be coarse and unpalatable.^^ As a result, maifan symbolized a simple and
frugal lifestyle. For instance, if maifan was an official’s daily food, it would
help establish him as an upright moral person, even receiving accolades from
the emperor. There were ways to improve the taste of boiled whole wheat.
One was to mix it with other foods, such as red beans, soybeans and
vegetables, in cooking. And the other was to flavor it with certain seeds
and flowers. The blossoming pagoda tree flowers, for example, were often

Fan Ye, HouHanshu (Late Han history) - “Lu Xu” (Biography of Lu Xu), HDWZK,
2683.

Yu, “Han,” Food in Chinese Culture, 8iff; and Zhang Guangzhi {Chang Kuang-chih),
"Zhongguo yinshishi shangde jici tupo” (Several breakthroughs in the Chinese food and
drink history), Di 4 jie Zhongguo yinshi wenhua xueshu yantaohui lunwenji (Proceedings
of the 4th academic symposium on Chinese food and drink culture) (Taipei: Zhongguo
yinshi wenhua jijinhui, 1996), 3.

Ishige Naomichi, “Filamentous Noodles, '^Miantiao': Their Origin and Diffusion,” Di 3 jie
Zhongguo yinshi wenhua xueshu yantaohui lunwenji (Proceedings of the 3rd academic
symposium on Chinese food and drink culture) (Taipei: Zhongguo yinshi wenhua jijinhui,
1994), 118.

Xu, Zhongguo yinshishi, 475-476.

Xu Pingfang, “Zhongguo yinshi wenhua de diyuxing jiqi ronghe” (Regions and cross-
regional development in Chinese food and drinking culture), Di 4 jie Zhongguo yinshi
wenhua xueshu yantaohi lunwenji (Proceedings of the 4th academic symposium on
Chinese food and drinking culture) (Taipei: Zhongguo yinshi wenhua jijinhui, 1996), 96-97.

Chopsticks: a cultural and culinary history

mixed in when cooking wheat. It made maifan fragrant and even entic-
ing, hence easier to swallow. But its texture remained not as soft as that of
rice or millet, especially the huangliang (lit. yellow millet; ordinary
Setaria) variety of millet.

But once wheat is milled into flour and made into doughy food, its taste
becomes dramatically improved. This is also how most people consume
the grain today. The Chinese had discovered the method from the Han
period. Both archaeology and history have shown that around the first
century bce, the Chinese not only resumed using saddle querns, but they
also turned to rotary querns to grind wheat into flour, which became fine
enough to make dumpling wrappers and noodles. In the Han tombs of
Shaokou of Henan Province, for example, archaeologists found three
millstones in 1958. Then a decade later in 1968, an archaeological exca-
vation unearthed another rotary millstone in a well-preserved Han tomb in
Mancheng, Hebei Province. In addition, Huan Tan’s (zy bce to 50 ce)
New Essays (Xinlun) provides the best textual evidence about the variety
of mills used in his time:

After Mi Xi [Fu Xi, an agricultural god] invented the pestle and mortar, the
invention benefited numerous people. Over time, people improved its use and
learned how to grind [the grain] with the help of their body weight. The result
was ten times better than before. Further on, they invented devices that allowed
them to use the ox, horse, donkey and mule as well as to use water to power the
mill. Then the result was improved a hundred times.’’’

The existence of these animal mills and watermills indicates that grinding
had become common for processing wheat and other grains during this era.

Thanks to milling, floured wheat foods became popular in Han China.
In Chinese, the term bing refers to either dough or dough-based foods.
While it had appeared in the Mozi, attributed to Mo Zi (470-391 bce), the
term appeared much more frequently in Han texts. Liu Xi’s Shiming, a
lexicon from the second century ce, for example, registers six types of
floured wheat foods distinguished by different prefixes that describe either
their texture or shape. Bing’s popularity also entered historical records.
Before Han Emperor Xuan (r. 74-49 bce) was chosen as the successor to
the throne, according to the record, he often purchased bing from street

Huan Tan, Xinlun (New essays) (Shanghai: Shanghai renmin chubanshe, 1967), 44.
Mozi, Mozi - “Gengzhu,” CTP, 18. Combining the radical “shi” (food) and the verb
''bing” (to blend), bing described how wheat flour dough was made by adding water to
the flour - the word bing without the food radical, means “to blend” whereas its
homonym bing 1^, with the food radical, refers to a food that blends - mixes - wheat
flour with water.

Dish, rice or noodlef The changing use of chopsticks

food stands. Another Han ruler, Emperor Zhi (r. 145-146 ce) also loved
bing, which unfortunately caused his tragic death; an evil minister put
poison into the “boiled bing” [zhubing - noodXts}) for him to eat.^^

Not only did Han rulers like floured wheat products, but they also
designed policies to encourage wheat farming, especially in areas around
the Han capital in today’s Xi’an. Fan Shengzhi, a minor official under Han
Emperor Cheng (r. 3Z-7 bce), was put in charge of the project. For his
success. Fan received promotion. Drawing on his experience. Fan also
wrote a book, one of the first food histories in China, which describes
the techniques of growing both winter and spring wheat. The Monthly
Ordinances for the Four Peoples (Simin yueling), another Han agricultural
text by Cui Shi (105-170), further instructs that spring wheat should be
sown in the first month (February) of the year, winter wheat in the eighth
month (October).^** And the trend to grow more wheat continued in the
following centuries. During the Tang dynasty, wheat rivaled millet as the
leading cereal crop in North China, a subject to be discussed below.

If the improved milling technology made it easier to produce flour from
wheat, the craze for doughy foods among the Chinese reflected influences
from Central and South Asia. That is, although the nomadic or semi-
nomadic tribal peoples on the Han empire’s northern borders presented
a perennial concern for the Han government, cultural exchanges invari-
ably took place between the Han Chinese and the so-called huren. Huren
was a disparaging term then coined by the Chinese to refer to all nomadic
inhabitants in the Xiyu (lit. Western regions), which was a sweeping
concept for the vast regions stretching from Northwest China to Central
and South Asia in Chinese texts. In an article on the food culture in Han
and post-Han China, David Knechtges, professor of Chinese at the
University of Washington, points out that “the foods of the western
regions can often be identified by the presence of the prefix hu, which in
the early medieval period refers to the peoples of Central Asia, India, and
‘more particularly to peoples of Iranian extraction. Xiyu was at times a

Fan, HouHanshu - “Li Du Liezhuan” (Biographies of Li Gu and Du Qiao), HDWZK,
2085.

Fan Shengzhi, Fan Shengzhi shu (Fan Shengzhi’s book), annotated Shi Shenghan (Beijing:
Kexue chubanshe, 1956), 8-20; Cui Shi, Simin yueling jiaozhu (Annotated Monthly
Ordinances for the Four Peoples)^ annotated Shi Shenghan (Beijing: Zhonghua shuju,
1965), 13. 60-64.

David R. Knechtges, “Gradually Entering the Realm of Delight: Food and Drink in
Early Medieval China,” Journal of the American Oriental Society,, 117:2 (April-June
1997), 231.

52 -

Chopsticks: a cultural and culinary history

troublesome area for the Han Empire where assaults on its borders origi-
nated, but it was also a crucial pathway for the Empire to explore trade
relations with its nomadic neighbors. The famed Silk Road, which passed
through the region, is a prime example. Zhang Qian (164-114 bce), a
Han official who led a decade-long mission sent by Han Emperor Wu
(r. 141-87 bce) to the Xiyu, was a prominent figure in trailblazing the Silk
Road. In Han historical records, Zhang was credited with bringing
back many fruits, vegetables and grain crops, in addition to horses.^'’
The most well known were alfalfa, peas, onion, broad bean, cucumber,
carrot, walnut, grapes, pomegranate and sesame; all of them later became
well integrated in the Chinese food system.

In fact, bing became a popular food in Han China also because of
Central Asian influences. Toward the end of the third century, a writer
named Shu Xi (263-302) wrote “Rhapsody on Pasta” (Bingfu), describing
vividly a variety of bing available at that time. It gives a glowing and saliva-
inducing description of how these bing were made - e.g. with or without
meat - and what they tasted like when seasoned with different condiments
and how to consume them. Jia Sixie’s Essential Techniques for the
Peasantry, the sixth-century agricultural encyclopedia, also includes a
dozen recipes for making bing. These recipes reveal that some types of
bing were made similarly to doughy foods such as baked pancakes (shaob-
ing), hand-pulled noodles (lamian) and wonton [huntun), which are still
consumed daily by many today.

At the outset of his beautifully rhymed essay, Shu Xi makes an interest-
ing observation. “The making of the bing," he writes, “was something
quite recent. It might, as I was told, have come from the common folks or
even originated in a foreign land [emphasis added].” Shu was probably
right in noting the bing’s origin, for in Han China, hubing, with the prefix
hu for its Central Asian influence, seems to have been the quintessential
bing of the age. The Han Emperor Ling (168-189 bce), it was recorded,
liked ‘‘‘'hu clothes, hu tent, hu seat, hu [way of] sitting, hu food, hu harp, hu
flute, and hu dances.” And because of his interest in the exotic, “royal
relatives and nobles at the capital all tried to follow suit.” As a result, a “hu
craze” swept over the entire Empire, which included hiring hu soldiers in
the Han army. Dong Zhuo, the powerful warlord in the late Han, was
known for bolstering his military prowess by using hu cavalry. Without

Sima, Shiji - “Dawan liezhuan” (Biography of Great Wan), HDWZK, 3166-3168; Ban
Gu, Hanshu - “Dawan guo” (Kingdom of Great Wan), HDWZK, 3895.

Fan, HouHanshu - “Fuyao” (Subdue the demon), HDWZK, 3272.

Dish, rice or noodlef The changing use of chopsticks

question, hubing was a doughy food, made of floured wheat. When Liu Xi
described the six most common wheat foods in the second century, hubing
was the first on the list. Liu described hubing as “a big flatbread with
sesame seeds on top.”’*^ As such, it resembles naan bread, a daily starchy
food of Central Asia then and now. The Uyghurs (a Turkic people) in
Xinjiang, which is part of the Xiyu, call naan bread nang and still consume
it daily. In other parts of China, the popular zhima shaobing (baked
sesame seed bread/pancakes) might be its variation.

Eating hubing, or baked bread and pancakes in general, does not
usually require the use of utensils. This perhaps further proves that in
most of Han China, spoons and chopsticks were not necessarily used
together in eating a meal - particularly if the grain food was bread. As a
craze, the once prevalent influence of Central Asian food began to taper
off toward the late Han. For instance, despite hubing’s popularity, bak-
ing never became a leading cooking method in Chinese communities. The
other common wheat foods described in Liu Xi’s dictionary are early
forms of noodles and dumplings, cooked by either boiling or steaming,
the two more traditional Chinese methods. By the third century, when
Shu Xi heaped his praise on wheat foods, most of them were already
made and cooked in traditional Chinese ways. For instance, in place of
baking, the Chinese steamed dough into mantou (steamed buns), or
lightly pan-fried it into mianbing (pancakes). Then there were noodles,
called tangbing (lit. dough in the soup) by Shu. Shu Xi also made specific
recommendations on how to eat these varieties in tandem with seasonal
changes. Mantou was best for a warm spring, he said, whereas tangbing
was for the summer because it was cooked in water, which is needed for
the body as it perspires in the heat. For the winter season, Shu suggested
eating mianbing hot to cope with the cold weather.^” Of these varieties, it
seems Shu Xi personally preferred mantou, or steamed buns, which can be
dubbed “Chinese bread.” Over time, mantou became a daily food across

Liu Xi, Shiming (Interpretation of names) (Taipei: Shangwu yinshuguan, 1965), juan

4, 6z.

Cf. Zhu Guozhao, “Zhongguo de yinshi wenhua yu sichou zhilu” {Chinese food and drink
culture and the Silk Road), Zhongguo yinshi wenhua (Chinese food and drink culture), ed.
Nakayama Tokiko, trans. Xu Jianxin (Beijing: Zhongguo shehui kexue chubanshe, 1990),
228-231. A more extensive discussion of the naan bread as hubing in ancient China is in
He, Tianshan jiayan, 75-84.

See Liu, Zhongguo zhu wenhuashi, 1 80-1 81. David Knechtges translates some of Shu Xi’s
rhapsody in his “Gradually Entering the Realm of Delight: Food and Drink in Early
Medieval China,,'' Journal of the American Oriental Society, 117:2 (April-June 1997), 2.36.

Chopsticks: a cultural and culinary history

China, along with baozi, wheat dough with a filling (meat, vegetables, red
bean paste, etc.) wrapped inside.

Baozi is made similarly to jiaozi, or Chinese dumplings, for both wrap
food inside a thin flour skin. Also like baozi, jiaozi can be steamed, though
boiled jiaozi seems to have been more common. A more significant differ-
ence lies in the way one eats them: jiaozi is transported by chopsticks
whereas baozi is held by the hand. Chopsticks are also a convenient tool
for eating noodles, another popular doughy food. As an expert on wheat
foods, Shu Xi already observed in his time that chopsticks were most
suitable for eating noodles.^ ^ In the following ages, these two forms
of wheat foods became more popular than other varieties. Yan Zhitui
(531-595), a prominent writer of his time, made a remark, exclaiming
that the dumpling - which he called huntun, or wonton - had become so
popular that it was indeed “a food for everyone in the world!” If this
were the case, then it also continued in the centuries after. The Ennin’s
Diary, written by Ennin (793-864), a Buddhist monk from Japan,
chronicled his trip in Tang China during 838-847. When they traversed
China, Ennin and his associates were at times offered huntun by the
Chinese. They also ate noodles as often as - if not more than - wonton
while in Tang China.

Thanks to the popularity of noodles and dumplings in Han and post-
Han China, chopsticks, perhaps for the first time, became employed also in
conveying grain food, and the mixed form of both grain and nongrain food
in particular. As discussed in the Introduction, once these forms of floured
foods were created, then the traditional fan-cai, or grain and nongrain
food, divide became irrelevant, for in making dumplings one blends the
grain and nongrain foods in one unity, while in eating noodles one also
tends to mix them with some sauce or broth. Chopsticks are quite adequate
for conveying both dumplings and noodles. While drinking the broth in a
soup noodle dish, a spoon can be of assistance, though it is not indispensable
because one can raise the bowl to the mouth and drink the soup directly.
In fact, this is even a recommended way among the Japanese: consuming
the broth amounts to the final act in finishing the noodles. One is also

Liu, Zhongguo zhu wenhuashi, i8i.

Duan Gonglu, Beihulu {Gazetteers of Guangdong), juan 2, ZJGK, 20. Many recipe books
from the period, especially those written in the Tang, registered the popularity of dump-
lings in China. There were as many as twenty-four varieties of dumpling fillings, according
to one recipe. See Nakayama, Zhongguo yinshi wenhua,, 165.

Ennin’s Diary: The Record of a Pilgrimage to China in Search of Law, trans.
Edwin Reischauer (New York: Ronald Press, 1955), 107, 141, 209, 295-296.

Dish, rice or noodlef The changing use of chopsticks

supposed to drink miso soup this way in Japan, after using chopsticks to
pick up the foodstuffs therein.

Since dumplings and noodles are so important to the increased use of
chopsticks, a brief review of their history perhaps is in order. Legend
attributes the invention of dumplings to Zhang Zhongjing (i 50-219), a
Han pharmacologist. The earliest example of dumplings, however, had
appeared much earlier; it was found in a grave dating back to the fourth
century bce.^"^ The Chinese term for dumplings - jiaozi - did not enter
popular use until the Song dynasty (960-1279), but huntun appeared
earlier. In Guangya, a comprehensive lexicon compiled by the philologist
Zhang Yi in the early third century, huntun is described as a ball of dough
shaped like the miniature crescent moon. Since the earliest noodle samples
were discovered in China, the Chinese might take the credit as their
inventor. Like pasta, noodles have several varieties, with lamian being
the most well known. In classical Chinese, soup noodle was called either
suobing (string noodle), or tangbing, or shuiyinbing (lit. noodle drawn/
floated in the water) - the former refers to its shape and the latter to the way
it is cooked in boiling water. Suobing thus is thinner, more like vermi-
celli; it is called somen in Japanese and somyeon in Korean.

The popularity of noodles also extended beyond regions in East Asia
westward, along the Silk Road, to Central Asia and beyond. That is to
say, while the Han Chinese imported a number of plants and fruits from
Central Asia, they also exported noodles to their neighbors through Xiyu,
including today’s Xinjiang. Ishige Naomichi, a Japanese expert on food
cultures in East Asia, has noted that the Uyghur word lagman/legman,
meaning filamentous noodles, which is commonly used by the peoples
from Xinjiang to Central Asia, was derived from the Chinese term
lamian?^ And the spread continued further. In his philological study
of medieval Turkish, Peter B. Golden discusses the “pasta complex,”

Wang Renxiang, “Cong kaogu faxian kan Zhongguo gudaide yinshi wenhua chuan-
tong” (Traditions of food and drink culture in ancient China shown in archaeological
finds), Hubei jingji xueyuan xuebao (Journal of Hubei economics college), 2 (2004),
III. But Wang also notes that better shaped dumplings, resembling more the modern
ones, were found in Xinjiang in the seventh century. Cf. Xinjiang Weiwuer zizhiqu
bowuguan (Uyghur autonomous district in Xinjiang), “Xinjiang Tulufan Asitana beiqu
muzang fajue jianbao” (Brief report on the excavation in the tombs of northern Astana,
Turpan, Xinjiang), Wentvu (Cultural relics), 6 (i960), 20-21. Also, He, Tianshan
jiayan, 85-86.

See Jia Sixie, Qimin yaoshu (Essential techniques for the peasantry), http://zh. wikisource,
org/zh/^^^ll^j, juan 9, “Bingfa” (methods in making doughy foods).

Ishige, “Filamentous Noodles, ‘‘Miantiao': Their Origins and Diffusion,” 122.

Chopsticks: a cultural and culinary history

spreading from East Asia to the Mediterranean through the migration of
such nomads as the Xiongnu and the Mongols from the first to
the fourteenth centuries. Golden also notes the intrinsic relationship
between eating noodles and chopsticks use. In medieval Turkish, he
finds, chopsticks were glossed as “two sticks of wood with which maca-
roni is eaten.

As chopsticks gained broader appeal as an eating implement, they also
came to be made of more expensive and durable materials. To be sure,
wooden and bamboo chopsticks remained the most common throughout
the period, as they were more likely used by the masses. But archaeolog-
ical digs in China have recorded a significant increase in metal chopsticks
from the first century onward and, in particular, a great number of silver
chopsticks between the sixth and the tenth centuries. Having looked over
the unearthed samples of chopsticks, Liu Yun remarks that from the
Neolithic Age, chopsticks were always made of different materials, rang-
ing from bone and brass or bronze to bamboo and wood. In early
Han tombs, such as in Mawangdui, bamboo chopsticks were common
whereas toward the late Han, more brass utensils were found. “But in the
Sui and Tang periods,” Liu notices, “a significant change occurred,” as
many chopsticks were made of precious metals, jade and rare animal
bones.

Of the chopsticks unearthed in China from 1949 to the present, silver
chopsticks have been found most frequently, totaling eighty-seven pairs,
all dating between the sixth and the tenth centuries, or the Sui and Tang
periods. The earliest sample of silver chopsticks in the group was
unearthed near Xi’an, capital of the Sui dynasty (581-618),^^ but others
appeared across the land. In fact, more silver chopsticks were discovered in
the south, or the Yangzi River regions, than in the north. Of the eighty-
seven pairs of silver chopsticks, thirty-six of them surfaced in Dantu,
Jiangsu, and thirty were found in Changxing, Zhejiang.

The uneven distribution of these unearthed silver chopsticks could be
coincidental. But without question, the unprecedentedly large number of
metal chopsticks, and the silver variety in particular, found from the Sui

Peter B. Golden, “Chopsticks and Pasta in Medieval Turkic Cuisine,” Rocznik orientalis-
ticzny, 49 (1994-1995), 71-80.

Liu, Zhongguo Zhu wenhuashi, 215.

Zhongguo shehui kexueyuan kaogu yanjiusuo {The Institute of Archaeology, Chinese
Academy of the Social Sciences), Tang Chang’an chengjiao Suimu (The Sui tombs near
the Tang capital Chang’ an) (Beijing: Wenwu chubanshe, 1980).

Liu, Zhongguo zhu wenhuashi^ 215-219.

Dish, rice or noodlef The changing use of chopsticks

and Tang periods suggests that they were in vogue at the time. Multiple
reasons might account for this new phenomenon. One could be the con-
cern for durability, as mentioned above, since chopsticks now took on
more duties - transferring not only nongrain but also grain food. The other
might be due to the common belief that silver could detect arsenic poison-
ing in food, hence making silver chopsticks desired by the rich and power-
ful in China and beyond. The third factor, to be discussed below, might
have something to do with the increased consumption of meat, lamb and
mutton in particular, among the northern Chinese in the Tang period.

Additionally, Liu Yun and his cowriters argue that improved living
standards and metallurgical technology in the Tang made metal chopsticks
more available in that period. Their argument is based on the finding that
some of the silver and other metal chopsticks had exquisite carvings on top
or were even plated with fine gold; both had not been seen before. In other
words, during the Tang, crafted or artistic chopsticks - gongyi zhu in
Chinese and kogei bashi in Japanese - appeared (Plate 2.7)."*^
Demonstrating advanced technology, these crafted chopsticks also attest
to the improved life under the Tang as well as the elevated status of
chopsticks, which began to be exchanged as gifts.

The Tang dynasty was another golden age in Chinese imperial history,
rivaling the previous Han dynasty in importance. The Tang Empire
occupied a large territory; the part on the west stretched to Inner Asia
during most of its rule. As such, the Tang kept open the channel for
Central and South Asian influences to filter into China proper. Some
ancestors of the Li family who founded the Tang dynasty originally
came from the prairieland. After establishing their government, Tang
rulers designed and promoted policies to encourage trade and commerce
between the Han Chinese and their nomadic neighbors to the north and
northwest. They also allowed the practice of different religious faiths and
fostered cultural exchanges in the region. Thus the period under Tang
rule is commonly called an era of cosmopolitanism in East Asian history.
It was during this cosmopolitan age that the chopsticks cultural sphere
took deeper roots and also expanded in Asia (e.g. into Japan).

Tang rulers’ open-mindedness encouraged diverse culinary practices to
coexist among the different peoples under its rule. To some extent, this was
the default choice for the Tang government because after the fall of the
Han dynasty. North China had become overrun by several nomadic
groups, causing massive migration: Chinese farming communities from

Ibid., 222-225.

Chopsticks: a cultural and culinary history

the region moved southward, mostly to the Yangzi River regions. In
Chinese history, this post-Han period is usually referred to as the “period
of southern and northern dynasties” because as the nomads established
their regimes in North and Northwest China, the emigre groups who
retreated from the north (re)created their governments in South and
Southwest China. In both the north and south, the kingdoms were short-
lived; none was able to conquer the others and unify the land until the rise
of the Sui dynasty in the late sixth century, followed by Tang rule in the
early seventh century. All this meant that the northern and southern divide
in foodway and cookery continued. Given the nomadic influence, the
people in the north, for example, consumed more meat and dairy foods,
whereas the people in the south took rice, fish and vegetables as their
daily foods. This difference in food intake and taste is well reflected in
literature. Yang Xuanzhi’s Records of Buddhist Temples in Luoyang
(Luoyang qielanji), an expansive literary and historical text written in the
mid-sixth century, described how when Wang Su, a southerner, worked
for the Northern Wei dynasty (386-534), a nomadic regime in North
China, he retained his habit of eating rice and fish stew and drinking tea,
instead of taking lamb and drinking milk as most others around him did.
Indeed, while Wang Su was disgusted by the northern diet, the northerners
also disliked and mocked his eating habits.

The interregnum between the fall of the Han and the rise of the Tang
also saw the commencement of the formative period of Buddhist influence
in East Asia. But interestingly, Buddhist influence too was received differ-
ently in China. Even though Mahay ana Buddhism, the prevalent sect in
East Asia, is generally believed to have entered China through the northern
route, and Buddhism frowned upon animal killing, the people in the north
still consumed more meat than did their southern counterparts. While
discussing the Buddhist culinary influence in East Asia, Y ao Weijun observes
that since meat and dairy foods had been so essential among the Mongols,
the Tibetans and their peers, their Buddhists, past and present, have never
practiced meat prohibition.”*^ This is a succinct observation. In the south,
however, Buddhist conversion discouraged meat consumption, perhaps
because animal meat was not as important in the traditional diet as in
the north. In 521, Emperor Wu (aka Xiao Yan, 464-549) of the Southern

Wang Lihua, Zhonggu huabei yinshi wenhuade bianqian (Changes in food and drink
culture of North China during the middle imperial period) (Beijing: Zhongguo shehui
kexue chubanshe, 2001), 278

Yao Weijun, “Fojiao yu Zhongguo yinshi wenhua" (Buddhism and the food and drink
culture in China), Minzhu (Democracy monthly), 9 (1997), 32-33.

Dish, rice or noodlef The changing use of chopsticks

Liang dynasty (50Z-5 57) issued the first decree prohibiting meat. Known for
his devotion to Buddhism, which earned him the sobriquet of “the Buddhist
Monarch” in history, Emperor Wu practiced asceticism and stayed away
from meat in his diet. He only ate one meal a day, which consisted merely of
coarse rice and bean stew without alcohol or meat.'*'*

Several Tang rulers were also known as Buddhist followers but by and
large meat consumption was not prohibited in the Empire (the south
included), possibly due to the Li family’s nomadic ancestry from the north-
west regions. In a paper on the Central Asian influence on the northwestern
Chinese diet, E. N. Anderson finds that “the northwestern cuisine shares
a fondness for meat, especially lamb, a flesh otherwise little used in
China. This is not surprising. In his Essential Techniques for the
Peasantry, Jia Sixie, who spent most of his life in the north before the
Tang, already details methods of raising animals, goat and sheep in partic-
ular, for consumption. Wang Lihua, a Chinese food scholar, also observes
that from the fifth century, lamb gradually became the more preferred meat
among the Chinese. Drawing on a number of historical sources, Wang
argues that during the Tang period, lamb had already replaced pork to
become the more consumed meat in North China. The Tang government,
he notes, often rewarded its outstanding officials with lamb meat, but
seldom with other animal flesh. As a result, lamb was also mentioned
most frequently in Tang historical texts.'**’ In brief, meat consumption
rose in Tang China as compared with that in the earlier periods.

Of course, it remains perhaps an issue for debate whether the phenom-
enon of increased meat consumption in Tang society can help explain the
majority of metal utensils excavated from that period. People’s taste in
things could have been influenced by practical needs as well as by tradition,
custom and belief. But it is also obvious that metal is more hard-wearing
than wood and bamboo and that cooked meat remains tougher than fish
and vegetables - the latter tend to dissolve after heat is applied. Koreans’
preference for metal utensils, which is somewhat unique in the chopsticks
cultural sphere, might support the speculation, for meat figures more
centrally in Korean cuisines than in any other Asian cuisines. Korean

Yao Silian, Liangshu (History of the Southern Liang dynasty) - “Wudi benji” (Biography
of Emperor Wu), HDWZK, 63-94.

E. N. Anderson, “Northwest Chinese Cuisine and the Central Asian Connection,”
Di 6 jie Zhongguo yinshi wenhua xueshu yantaohui lunwenji (Proceedings of the 6th
academic symposium on Chinese food and drink culture) (Taipei: Zhongguo yinshi
wenhua jijinhui, 1999), 173.

Wang, Zhonggu huabei yinshi wenhua de bianqian^ 112-116.

Chopsticks: a cultural and culinary history

chopsticks were traditionally made of brass and bronze but nowadays are
made more of stainless steel. Sharing the Chinese belief that silver
can detect poison, wealthy Koreans also prefer silver chopsticks, then
and now. By contrast, meat had been generally excluded from Japanese
cookery for many centuries until the modern era. The Japanese have
overwhelmingly favored wooden chopsticks; the metal variety seems to
have had no appeal for them. (Other reasons for the Japanese to choose
wooden chopsticks will be discussed in the next chapter.)

Eating more meat and meat-based dishes often turns people to the
knife and fork. But in Tang China, the most common utensils remained
bizhu, or spoon and chopsticks, as in the earlier periods. Following the
culinary tradition of the Han and pre-Han periods, the Chinese contin-
ued to prepare meat in bite-size morsels before cooking. As a result,
chopsticks remained the ideal tool for conveying food. Moreover,
besides boiling and stewing, a new cooking method, stir-frying, gained
ground beginning in the post-Han period; its popularity reinforced and
ensured the continual prevalence of chopsticks in this role. Stir-frying
requires that one first heat the cooking oil in a pan or a wok before
putting in the ingredients, which are already cut into small pieces for easy
frying and better mixing. One important advantage of stir-frying is its
energy efficiency - cooking food rapidly on the flame instead of heating it
for a long time, as in baking and roasting. Extending the culinary
tradition of cutting meat and other foodstuffs in small portions, stir-
frying not only shortens the cooking time but also brings out the blended
taste of all the components in the dish. Historical texts show that as
milling became widely adopted to process grain food during the Han era,
the Chinese also ground other plants such as sesame seeds and rapeseeds
to make cooking oil. For instance, in his Essential Techniques for the
Peasantry, Jia Sixie discusses ways to plant and grow sesame. He also
offers recipes for cooking dishes with sesame oil. One recipe in his book is
for cooking scrambled eggs. What is intriguing is that Jia’s method,
except for recommending using sesame oil, is exactly the same as how
people cook scrambled eggs today. From the Tang period, thanks to
the use of high-quality charcoal, stir-frying became a more popular and
more mature cooking method. Indeed, scholars have regarded this cooking
method as one of the important breakthroughs in the Chinese culinary

Roberts, China to Chinatown,, 21-22.

Jia, Qimin yaoshu,, http://zh.wikisource.org/zh/^K^%, juan 6, “Yangji” (raising
chickens).

Dish, rice or noodlef The changing use of chopsticks

tradition.'^® As the food items are small in a stir-fried dish, chopsticks
become an effective tool for picking them up. Indeed, some may even use
the utensil to stir-fry the dish - to turn, arrange and mix the ingredients for a
better result.

Despite the strong evidence that chopsticks gained more appeal in Tang
society, the spoon retained its original function in conveying fan, grain
starch, which remained for many a more important component in a meal.
Of course, what constituted fan in the Tang reflected regional differences
as before. Due to the continued southern/northern divide in Chinese
food culture, rice had to be the daily staple for the people living around
the Yangzi River regions, as it had been for the previous centuries.
Unfortunately, most literary sources from the period are from North
China, where the Tang central government was located. And in the north
and northwest, millet remained the leading grain. Besides its toughness in
resisting drought and flood, millet also has another advantage: it is
immune to insects, which turned it into the best reserve grain for famine
relief. The Tang document records that the government stored millet in
granaries. But interestingly, the same source also reveals that wheat had
become a reserve grain too in the Tang granaries.

In other words, due to the continual attraction of floured wheat foods,
the daily grain food consumed by the northern Chinese became more
diversified - millet’s dominance was undermined by wheat. “Wherever
a Tang text talks about food,” finds Wang Saishi, another scholar of Tang
food culture, “it uses ubiquitously the term ‘hmg’ [doughy food].” He also
notes that compared with the Han period, the variety of bing multiplied
notably in this period. Hubing, the naan bread of which many Chinese in
the Han had become enamored, remained popular. Yet its popularity was
now challenged by the zhengbing (steamed bread/bun) and the jianbing
(pan-fried bread/cake), the latter cooked with heated oil. There were also
more varieties of tangbing (noodles) in the Tang. For instance, the Tang
people ate both hot and cold noodles; the latter resembles the way soba

Liu, Zhongguo zhu wenhuashi,, 205. Zhao Rongguang states that stir-frying began in the
post-Han period, made more strides during the Tang and eventually became a mature and
widely adopted cooking method in the post-Tang periods. Zhongguo yinshi wenhua
gailun, 173-174. K. C. Chang deemed stir-frying to be one of the revolutions in Chinese
culinary history, “Zhongguo yinshishi shangde jici tupo” (Several revolutions in the
Chinese food history), Di 4 jie Zhogguo yinshi wenhua xueshu yantaohui lunwenji
(Proceedings of the 4th academic symposium of Chinese food and drink culture) (Taipei:
Zhongguo yinshi wenhua jijinhui, 1996), 1-109.

See Bray, Science and Civilization in China, vol. 6, pt. 2, 420.

Wang, Zhonggu huabei yinshi wenhuade bianqian, 69.

Chopsticks: a cultural and culinary history

(buckwheat noodle) is consumed in Japan today. Tang texts also showed
that, as is common in North China today, a noodle dish became a food for
guests in Tang society.’^

Yet besides wheat doughy foods, fan to the northern Chinese still
meant boiled or steamed grains, usually millet (both the broomcorn and
foxtail varieties) and wheat, which were continued to be boiled whole in
making porridge and gruel. Thus in a Tang text, fan usually denoted a
mushy form of cooked grain food. In their poems and essays, Tang writers
described how they applied a spoon in scooping fan. Xue Lingzhi (683-?),
a once high-ranking official dismissed by Emperor Xuanzong (r. 712-
756), masks his discontent in a poem, in which he complains how he was
unappreciated by the Emperor, just as someone uses the wrong utensil
to eat a meal: “when cereal (fan) is sticky, it is hard to use a spoon whereas
if a stew (geng) is thin, then chopsticks need to be rounder.”^"* Xue’s
poem helps confirm that the people then used spoons for eating fan and
chopsticks for cai. Xue also says that fan should not be cooked viscously
(like cooked rice?), for it is hard for the spoon to transport it. In a letter to a
friend, Han Yu (768-824), another Tang scholar-official, also writes that
he used the spoon to convey fan, particularly if it was mushy when cooked.
As he was aging and had loose teeth, Han tells his friend, he preferred
the fan cooked rather soft and soggy so it could be scooped easily with
a spoon. He would then slowly and repeatedly chew on it like a cow
regurgitating its cud.^^

One can imagine that since it was so mushy, the fan Han Yu preferred
might have been more like zhou (porridge) in texture. Yet the distinction
between zhou and fan never seems so definitive, but porous and fluid.
Some zhou can be quite consistent, or thick like gruel, whereas some fan
can contain much liquid, and hence be rather mushy. Erom the post-Han
period through the late nineteenth century, in addition to zhou and fan, the
Chinese coined and employed such terms as shuifan (lit. watered cereal)
and tangfati (lit. cereal in hot water), which bordered as well as bridged the

Wang Saishi, Tangdai yinshi {Food and drink culture in the Tang) (Ji’nan: Qilu shushe,
2003), 1-17; quote on 2.

Ibid., 1 8-24. A search in the Tang texts in ZJGK shows that maifan appeared a total of fifty
times, compared with shufan (broomcorn millet) which appeared eighty times and sufan
(foxtail millet) fifty-five times.

Xue Lingzhi’s poem is in Wang Dingbao, Tang zhiyan (Anecdotes of Tang literati), juan
i5,ZJGK,c,o.

Han Yu, “Zeng Liu Shifu” (To Liu Shifu), Changli xiansheng wenji (Essays of Han Yu),
juan 5, ZJGK, 38.

Dish, rice or noodlef The changing use of chopsticks

zhou-fan distinction. And from the Ming dynasty (1368-1644) a new term
xifan (lit. thinned or diluted cereal) gained currency. Interchangeable with
zhou, xifan remains in use in modern Chinese. Both terms refer to a kind of
grain cereal cooked in a liquid form, though the ways they are made may be
slightly different. Both zhou and xifan are best eaten with a spoon.

Tang literary writers and poets, like Han Yu, often called the spoon for
scooping fan liuchi. Combining the character liu (flowing and floating) and
chi (spoon), the term connotes, figuratively, that when put into use, the
utensil enables its user to dig swiftly into the fan and scoop it up effortlessly.
That is, liuchi was a type of spoon that would not allow extra grains to
adhere to it. To stress its effectiveness, Tang poets often used the verb “slide/
glide” {hua) to describe how liuchi worked in eating fan. In a short poem
about a lavish dinner, Bai Juyi (772-846), a Tang poet contemporaneous
with Han Yu, exclaimed, and exaggerated: “The fish is so delicious whose
fat dropped on the flame below making flickers; the cereal granules are so
refined and smooth that they slide on the spoon [down to my mouth].

In order to achieve such an effect - moving a spoon smoothly into the
fan and scooping it freely as one desires - it seems that two conditions must
be met. One is that the spoon must have a smooth surface and the other is
that the cooked grain food must contain a certain amount of water to make
it less gluey. The first condition seems to be there as most utensils in Tang
China were made of metal, silver or brass, which tends to have a smoother
surface than the wooden ones. The second condition is hard to prove with
material evidence, but the frequent usage of liuchi - its combination with
the verb hua - in Tang literature seems to indicate that the fan consumed by
the people during that period could have bordered between fan and zhou
as they do in modern days. It had to contain enough liquid for people to
scoop it up swiftly without extra grains sticking to their spoons. Scholars

Shuifan is first mentioned in Ge Hong, Zhouhou beijifang (Convenient prescriptions for
emergencies), ZJGK, 74, and Xifan is first found in Feng Menglong, Jingu qiguan
(Curious spectacles of past and present), juan 32, 410. A search in ZJGK shows that
xifan was not used until the Ming, whereas zhou has been in use since antiquity. In some
regions, zhou is made by boiling the grain whereas xifan is made by adding water to the
already cooked grain, or fan, to make it watery.

Bai Juyi, Baishi changqing ji (Collected works of Bai Juyi), ZJGK, 604.

It must be noted that in literary writings, it was a cliche for poets and essayists to describe
how they ate fan with the liuchi spoon effortlessly. That is, whenever liuchi was used,
they used the verb hua to go with it, even after, as we now believe, the spoon was no longer
in use for transporting grain food. A search in ZJGK finds that the phrase appeared a total
of 143 times {hualiuchi ninety-five times and liuchihua forty-eight times) in the texts from
the Tang to the Qing.

Chopsticks: a cultural and culinary history

have also pointed out that porridge was popular during the Tang period
because many believed that it had a medicinal effect, ideal for a patient.
Archaeological excavations have provided confirmation: two types of
spoons have appeared in Tang tombs, one has a shallower - almost flat -
bowl and shorter handle and the other a deeper and larger bowl and a longer
handle. The former is believed to be used for grain food whereas the latter is
for drinking soup.'’° By contrast, the dagger-like bi with a sharp edge,
ubiquitously seen in the Neolithic Age, had by and large disappeared. But
the term bi remained in use, still referring to a spoon, for several centuries.'’^
In addition, Tang texts reveal that the decline of millet as the most
important grain cereal was due as much to the growing appeal of wheat
as to the spread of rice across China. Wheat and wheat-based foods
entered Tang poetry quite frequently. Yet a number of Tang poems also
describe rice farming in areas of North China where rice is rarely grown
nowadays. Ennin, the Japanese monk, mentioned that rice porridge was
typically provided at Buddhist temples as he crisscrossed Tang China.
Thus during the Tang, while wheat consumption increased significantly,
the government also encouraged rice farming in North China, especially in
the Guanzhong region where the Tang capital Chang’an was located.'’^
Rice was then grown in Guanzhong, it seems, not only because the region
was relatively moist, ideal for growing rice, but also because there was a
great demand for it from the people working for the Tang government. As
mentioned before, for the northern Chinese, eating rice had been tanta-
mount to leading a good, even luxurious, life in China since the age of
Confucius. Ennin’s diary recorded that the price of rice was still higher
than that of millet in Tang China. One could imagine that officials

Liu Pubing, TangSong yinshi wenhua bijiao yanjiu (A comparative study of food and
drinking cultures in the Tang and Song periods) (Beijing: Zhongguo shehui kexue chu-
banshe, 2010), 119-121.

° Liu, Zhongguo zhu wenhuashi, 219-221.

In his study of the food culture in Han China, H. T. Huang has also noticed the shift from
dagger-shaped spoons to lacquered wooden ones. He noted that the latter first appeared in
the late Zhou period and “reached the heights of popularity during the Han.” Huang,
“Han Gastronomy,” 148.

Ennin’s Diary, 31, 56, 66, 73-74, 157, 172. It should be noted that Ennin used the
character zhou, which usually refers to rice porridge and which was what he often
consumed at breakfast in China, though zhou could also be made of millet or other grains,
which he mentioned on page 190.

Wang, Zhonggu huabei yinshi wenhuade bianqian, 74-80; and Liu, TangSong yinshi
wenhua bijiao yanjiu, 57-58.

Ennin s Diary, 190.

Dish, rice or noodlef The changing use of chopsticks

working in the Tang capital, many of whom had succeeded in the civil
service examination instituted by the government, might be interested in
eating rice to show their success in climbing up the social ladder. Du Fu
(71Z-770), a famous poet, might not be the best example, for his official
career in the Tang government did not go very far. Yet he left a poem about
eating rice at a dinner near the Tang capital Chang’an. As a northerner, Du
was very impressed by the quality of rice; he compared rice grains to the
white stones (yunzv, lit. small cloud) in the Go game (tveiqi), a popular
chess game in China and East Asia. In his later life, Du spent several years
in Chengdu, Sichuan, a rice-growing region in the upper reaches of the
Yangzi River. But to stick to the tradition, Du scooped rice with a spoon,
according to his poem.*’®

In his study of the Tang food system, Wang Lihua has argued that
since North China was a political center during the period, “rice should
have occupied a much higher ratio of all grain production than it does
today.” During the Tang, he explains, irrigation was developed to an
unprecedented level to nourish rice paddies. But court records from the
period also contained a number of legal disputes over the irrigated water
because some used it instead to drive the waterwheel to power the
flourmill. The competition for water usage, states Wang, reflected the
growing interest in rice farming as opposed to wheat milling. Edward
H. Shafer also recognizes that rice was grown more than before in North
China. But he maintains that “even through rice was grown in the north
in Tang times, it could not rival wheat and millet there. So in North
China, the fan in the Tang remained mostly made of millet and wheat,
instead of rice. And because of the draw of tradition, even if people
ate rice, they might continue employing a spoon. Xue Eingzhi’s case is
quite telling. Having grown up in Eujian where rice was the staple grain,
he would have known that he could use chopsticks to move rice as
effectively as the spoon. But he says in his poem that he used a spoon
in eating fan.

Using examinations to recruit government officials was first attempted during the Sui
dynasty in the sixth century. But it was during the Tang period that the system became
fully institutionalized. Tang records show a dramatic increase in rice {from 200,000 shi to
over three million shi) being transported from the south to the north from the early Tang to
the late Tang. See Li Hu, ed. HanTang yinshi wenhuashi (A cultural history of the food
culture in Han and Tang China) (Beijing: Beijing shifan daxue chubanshe, 1998), 13.
Yang Lun, Dushi jingquan (Annotated poems of Du ¥u),juan 2, ZJGK, 39.

Wang, Zhonggu huabei yinshi wenhuade bianqian, 75.

Edward H. Shafer, “T’ang,” Food in Chinese Culture^ 89.

Chopsticks: a cultural and culinary history

In sum, from Han to Tang China, several notable changes took
place in agriculture and food culture, which impacted utensil use.
Early in the period, using spoons and chopsticks, rather than one’s
hands, to eat a meal, became a well-established dining habit in Chinese
society. Throughout the period, the spoon was a primary eating imple-
ment, for millet more or less retained its importance as a grain cereal and
required the spoon to transport it for convenience as well as for modish-
ness (as it was recommended by ancient Confucian rituals). But thanks
to the broad appeal and increasing variety of floured wheat foods,
especially the popularity of noodles, people all across China seemed to
realize the usefulness of chopsticks and apparently began to use the
instrument more than before in conveying both grain and nongrain
foods. As a result, chopsticks gained significant inroads in undermining
the spoon’s primacy as a utensil. Little wonder that in both stone carv-
ings and mural paintings of the Han and the Tang, chopsticks were often
depicted as the main - sometimes the only - utensil in many eating scenes
(Plate lo). Thanks to the widespread influence of Tang culture in Asia,
the growing popularity of chopsticks also became extended beyond the
Tang territorial border, into such regions as the Mongolian pastureland
in the north, the Korean Peninsula and the Japanese islands in the north-
east and east, and the Indochina Peninsula in the south. A chopsticks
cultural sphere thus began to take shape, albeit with discernible varia-
tions in time and place.

Forming a chopsticks cultural sphere: Vietnam,
Japan, Korea and beyond

The harmony between Oriental food and chopsticks cannot be merely
functional, instrumental; the foodstuffs are cut up so they can be grasped
by the sticks, but also the chopsticks exist because the foodstuffs are cut
into small pieces; one and the same movement, one and the same form
transcends the substance and its utensil: division.

Roland Barthes, Empire of Signs

In 1996 Samuel P. Huntington (1927-2008), then professor of govern-
ment at Harvard University, published The Clash of Civilizations and
the Remaking of World Order, a New York Times bestseller that year.
Huntington argued that three major civilizations had been formed in the
world: the Western Judeo-Christian civilization, the East Asian Confucian
civilization and the Middle Eastern Islamic civilization. Interestingly, if this
tripartite partition could indeed map out the world, then these civilizations
are distinguished from one another not only in terms of religious tradi-
tions, cultural ideals and political institutions (factors Huntington consid-
ers most seriously) but they also differ in culinary practices and dining
customs, which are little noted in Huntington’s book. As mentioned in the
Introduction, from the 1970s, food historians in Japan, such as Isshiki
Hachiro, and American historian Lynn White in the 1980s had already
observed that three dining customs, or food cultural spheres, existed in the
world: (i) eating with hand(s); (2) eating with forks, knives and spoons;
and (3) eating with chopsticks. Isshiki detailed that the first sphere, con-
stituting about forty percent of the world’s population, consists of peoples
living in South and Southeast Asia, the Middle and Near East, and Africa.
The second sphere, about thirty percent of the population, is composed of

Chopsticks: a cultural and culinary history

the peoples of Europe and North and South America. And the third, or
the chopsticks cultural sphere, constituting another thirty percent of the
world population, includes the Chinese, the Japanese, Koreans and the
Vietnamese. These marked differences in dining customs, Isshiki further
explained, reflect and extend the differences in food intake (e.g. whether
one eats meat or not and whether the grain staple is a plant or a root tuber),
food preparation, and eating etiquette and table manners. ‘ Geographically
and demographically speaking, Isshiki’s, White’s and Huntington’s divi-
sions of the world are identical.

Yet these overarching generalizations tend to overlook subtle differ-
ences within a particular sphere. While using chopsticks to carry food is
a distinct dietary custom, their users have, at times, also employed other
implements to assist the transportation. An observant visitor to the chop-
sticks cultural sphere may see visible differences in what kinds of chop-
sticks people use and how they use them, whether or not they also use a
spoon, and when and how. For instance, although chopsticks are made of
various materials, wooden chopsticks seem most popular, preferred par-
ticularly by the Japanese. In an up-market restaurant in Japan, customers
are usually given a pair of whitewood chopsticks, possibly of willow tree
wood, whereas on the same occasion in China, its customers more likely
find on the table a colorful porcelain spoon and a pair of chopsticks that
have either a gold-plated top or a top decorated with exquisite engravings.
In Korea, employing both a spoon and a pair of chopsticks is seen every-
where, and the implements are usually made of metal, such as stainless
steel. Beginning in ancient China, besides wood, the Chinese used bamboo
to make chopsticks, and both remain popular today. Bamboo chopsticks
are widely used in Vietnam too, since the plant is common. Yet Vietnam
is also well known for exporting high-quality rosewood chopsticks to
the rest of Asia. While the Vietnamese use bamboo chopsticks whereas
the Japanese wooden ones, they do share one thing in common: compared
with other chopsticks users, both the Vietnamese and the Japanese tend to
take chopsticks as the only utensil in dining, without the spoon. How do
these differences occur? Have they changed over time? This chapter will
address these questions while covering and discussing the history and the
characteristics of the chopsticks cultural sphere.

In describing the formation of the chopsticks cultural sphere, it seems
logical to begin with Vietnam, for among all of China’s neighbors the
Vietnamese could be the earliest in adopting the dining custom of utensil

^ Isshiki, Hashi no Bunkashi, 36-39.

Forming a chopsticks cultural sphere

use, and chopsticks use in particular, from China. In his survey of
Vietnamese history and culture, Nguyen Van Huyen (1908-1975), an
eminent historian in Vietnam, describes the dietary custom in his country
as follows:

At meals, the dishes are placed on a wooden or copper tray which is displayed in the
middle of the bed. The participants eat while sitting around with crossed legs. Each
has his bowl and his pair of chopsticks. The dishes are common for all, one uses
one’s chopsticks to take foodstuffs which are prepared and cut into small pieces.^

This description, without question, can be readily applied to characterizing
the cooking and dining practices in China. This is understandable because
since antiquity, the Vietnamese foodway, or that of mainland Southeast
Asia in general, has shared resounding similarities with that of South
China. Meanwhile, Vietnam was distinguished from its Southeast Asian
neighbors in history: from approximately the third century bce to about
the tenth century, various Chinese governments exercised their control
over the land, especially in the north, making Vietnam much more recep-
tive to Chinese influences.

As in South China, or the Yangzi River or Pearl River regions, rice has
been the dominant grain crop in Vietnam. Although the earliest rice remains
have so far been found in the Yangzi River Delta, it is believed that rice had
been grown in Vietnam no later than in South China, in the Neolithic Age.
Vietnam indeed was one of the origin places of Asian rice. “Wet-rice
cultivation,” writes Francesca Bray, “established in the Red River Delta
by the mid-third millennium bc, or perhaps earlier.”^ The Red River Delta
produces rice as its main crop because the region, especially the Mekong
River Delta, is crisscrossed by a maze of rivers and lakes. Fish thus also
became the main produce in Vietnam. When characterizing the food culture
of South China, Sima Qian, the Han historian, states that “rice was the chief
grain and fish stew the main dish.” This statement could readily apply to the
food culture in Viemam, just as Nguyen Van Huyen’s description of
Vietnamese dining customs could be applied to the Chinese’s.

Like the Chinese living in the reaches of the Yangzi River, the
Vietnamese take rice as their daily food and fish-based dishes as their
main nongrain food. In the Vietnamese language, a plethora of proverbs
describe the centrality of rice and fish. “Nothing is [better than] rice with

^ Nguyen Van Huyen, The Ancient Civilization of Vietnam (Hanoi: The Gioi Publishers,
15195), 212.

^ Francesca Bray, The Rice Economies: Technology and Development in Asian Societies
(Berkeley: University of California Press, 1994), 9-10.

Chopsticks: a cultural and culinary history

fish,” one maxim goes, “Nothing is [better than] a mother with a child.”
And “If you have rice,” goes another, “you’ve all. You are short of rice,
short of all.” For the Vietnamese, to treat a guest is to treat them with rice
and fish. “When you go out,” they tell the visitor, “you can eat fish; when
you come in, you can consume [glutinous] rice.” Many varieties of rice are
thus cultivated in Vietnam. Some are planted on the dry upland as in the
lowland paddies. A Vietnamese aphorism states, “If you have upland rice,
you can sleep peacefully; if you have lowland rice, you can sleep up your
fill.” More interestingly, an adage in muong Deng, a rice-producing region,
suggests that stew, too, is a well-liked dish: “If you want to eat rice, go
to muong Deng; if you want to eat keng [geng], go to muong Ha.”"^ That
is, as in South China, fish stew may well be the most common dish for
the locals.

Many of the rice-eating customs among the Vietnamese and the
southern Chinese are also comparable. For example, they both cultivate
glutinous rice (nuo in Chinese) and regard it as a festive and ritual food.
In Vietnamese, the glutinous rice is gao nep, while the ordinary type is gao
te. In celebrating the New Year in China and Vietnam, which occurs on the
first day of the first month of the lunar calendar in both countries, steamed
glutinous rice cakes are indispensable. These rice cakes take various
forms in China, whereas in Vietnam one kind of rice cake, or banh Tet,
is particularly reserved for the New Year celebration. Nir Avieli, an
anthropologist at the University of Pittsburgh, has called banh Tet an
“iconic festive dish,” essential to the Vietnamese national identity. In
preparing the banh Tet, the Vietnamese usually first soak the glutinous
rice in water overnight and then mix it with pork and green beans before
wrapping and tying it up with bamboo leaves and splinters. It is then
cooked for many hours in water before serving. ^ The way to prepare and
cook the rice cake is identical to how the southern Chinese make zongzi, a
ritual food now most consumed during the Dragon Boat Festival across
South China and Taiwan. The zongzi is for commemorating the death of
Qu Yuan (339-Z78 bce), an official-cum-poet in the State of Chu, one of
the Warring States in China. But in the southern part of Zhejiang, which

Quotes from Nir Avieli, “Eating Lunch and Recreating the Universe: Food and Cosmology in
Hoi An, Vietnam,” Everyday Life in Southeast Asia,, eds. Kathleen M. Adams & Kathleen
A. Gillogly (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2011), 222; and Nguyen Xuan Hien,
“Rice in the Life of the Vietnamese Thay and Their Folk Literature,” trans. Tran Thi Giang
Lien & Hoang Luong, Anthropos, Bd. 99 H. i (2004), 111-141.

^ Nir Avieli, “Vietnamese New Year Rice Cakes: Iconic Festive Dishes and Contested
National Identity,” Ethnology,, 44:2 (Spring 2005), 167-188.

Forming a chopsticks cultural sphere

bordered Nanyue {Nam Viet in Vietnamese), an early Chinese kingdom in
Vietnam, there has also been a time-honored custom to eat zongzi during
the New Year season.

Rice cakes can also be made with rice flour. While the people in North
China grind wheat grain into flour and make doughy food, the southern
Chinese and the Vietnamese powder rice, their grain staple. Powdered rice,
especially the glutinous variety, is used to make either salted or sugared
cakes as principal food offerings at cultural and religious ceremonies.
They are not wrapped in leaves but often colored with some leaf extract.
Since these cakes are mostly steamed, chopsticks might be the ideal tool
to pick them up in the steamer when hot. As celebratory food, however,
these cakes are often eaten after the ceremony. In other words, they are not
eaten hot, so one can hold them in one’s hands. Rice cakes are a common
food not only in South China and Vietnam, but also across Southeast Asia,
where rice is grown and where rice cakes are more customarily eaten with
fingers.

With rice flour, one can also make rice noodles. Rice noodles are trans-
ported with chopsticks in China, Vietnam and even elsewhere in Southeast
Asia. In recent decades, pho (rice vermicelli), a noodle soup often served
with thinly sliced beef, Asian basil, mint leaves, lime and bean sprouts,
has become arguably the most famous Vietnamese food outside Vietnam.
But in fact, rice noodle soups, served with different ingredients, are a
staple dish across South and Southwest China and many other places
in Southeast Asia. Rice noodles can be served with a broth, as in the case
of pho, but they can also be stir-fried over high heat, as in the case of char
kway teow, a common noodle dish in Singapore, Taiwan, Malaysia and
Indonesia. Char kway teow is usually cooked with beansprouts, whole
prawns, Chinese chives, and soy and chili sauces. Both pho and char kway
teow registered culinary influences from China; the word pho is derived
from fun, or “rice noodle” in Cantonese, and char kway teow comes from
chhd-koe-tidu in Hokkien, a language spoken by the Chinese in southern
Fujian. It is likely that emigrant Chinese communities initially brought
these noodle dishes to Southeast Asia.'’

Migration, whether forced or voluntary, was an important means
of intercultural exchange." In early imperial China, after a successful

^ See entries on pho and char kway teow on Wikipedia. As for the origin of pho, the entry says
that the term might be derived from the French word pot-au-feu (beef stew).

^ Jack Goody notes how immigration caused the spread of foods around the modern world,
which, it seems to me, was also true in ancient ages. Food and Love: A Cultural Fiistory of
East and West (London: Verso, 1998), 161-171.

72 .

Chopsticks: a cultural and culinary history

campaign the Qin and Han dynasties often created garrison forces, which
later became emigrant communities, on the newly conquered borderland
regions for the purposes of defense and colonization. In historical texts
from the period, such as the work by Sima Qian, the areas that encom-
passed the whole littoral zone of Southeast China, extending from the
modern Zhejiang and Fujian Provinces to the Red River Valley in northern
Vietnam, are referred to under an umbrella term Yue. In the Warring States
period, the State of Yue, centering in Zhejiang, was once a strong power.
Yue is written as Yiet in Vietnamese and Vietnam is called Yuenan in
Chinese, which literally means “south of Yue.” After Qinshihuang, the
founding emperor of the Qin dynasty (2Z1-206 bce), unified China
proper, or North China, he immediately sent five armies to conquer
the Yue lands. Zhao Tuo (c. 230-137 bce; Trieu Da in Vietnamese)
commanded one of them, and succeeded in establishing military rule in
northern Vietnam. But the quick dissolution of the Qin dynasty meant that
Zhao was left in full control of the Qin soldiers in Vietnam. By severing his
ties with China, or the newly established Han dynasty, and by expanding
deeper into southern Vietnam, Zhao subsequently founded an independ-
ent kingdom - Nanyue {Nam Viet in Vietnamese), which again means
“south of Yue.”

In order to defend his kingdom and consolidate his power, it was said
that Zhao Tuo “sealed the mountain passes leading north and eliminated
all officials not personally loyal to him.” But in his later years, Zhao
resumed his relations with China by acknowledging Han suzerainty over
his kingdom. Several decades after Zhao’s death in in bce, the Kingdom
of Nanyue (or the Trieu dynasty in Vietnamese history) came to an end. On
its demise, the Han government divided the old land of Nanyue into seven
prefectures - two of them were located in modern Vietnam. The passes
leading to the north, now placed under the jurisdiction of provinces to the
north, were reopened, ensuring the Chinese influence would flow more
freely into Vietnam.^ This situation remained more or less unchanged
for the following millennium. During the period, there appeared some
autonomous Vietnamese governments. All of them were short-lived, until
Ngo Quyen (897-944) established his independent dynasty in 938. Of all
the lands in the chopsticks cultural sphere, Vietnam thus received
most Chinese influence. While studying culinary cultures in mainland

* Keith Weller Taylor, The Birth of Vietnam (Berkeley: University of California Press,
1983), 42.

^ Ibid., 27-30.

Forming a chopsticks cultural sphere

Southeast Asia, Penny Van Esterik comments that “As the most Sinicized
country in the region, Vietnam adapted principles of Chinese cuisine and
today is the only country in Southeast Asia to rely primarily on chopsticks
for all meals.” She also points out that in areas outside Vietnam in
Southeast Asia, chopsticks use is limited to Chinese meals and noodle
dishes.

In their study of the chopsticks cultural sphere, Mukai Yukiko and
Hashimoto Keiko acknowledge that the Chinese cultural influence was a
crucial element in the Vietnamese adoption of chopsticks as a dining tool
necessary for conveying meals; from what is discussed above, this eating
custom might have taken root in Vietnam when it first came under Chinese
rule. Not only have bamboo chopsticks been the most common variety in
both countries, the Chinese and Vietnamese chopsticks also share similar
designs and characteristics. More specifically, the chopsticks are usually
round at the bottom but square on top, a design which reflects and extends,
maintain Mukai and Hashimoto, the cosmological belief of “squared earth
and round heaven” from ancient China. And the lengths of the chopsticks
in Vietnam and China are also comparable; averaging 25 cm long (if not
longer), they are lengthier than, for instance, the ones preferred by the
Japanese and Koreans. And as in China, wealthy Vietnamese also desire
ivory chopsticks. By comparison, such preference never took root in Japan,
Mukai’s and Hashimoto’s home country." Of course, geography plays a
role in this case - elephants existed - and still exist - in areas of Southeast
and South Asia, as well as across China in earlier times, whereas they were
never found in Japan.

Despite the above differences, the foodway in the Japanese archipelago
is rather similar to that of South China and Vietnam. Rice and fish
also figure centrally in Japanese food, thanks to the abundant water
resources and generally mild climate in Japan’s main islands (Hokkaido
is an exception). As mentioned above, the Vietnamese and Japanese could
be called exclusive chopsticks users, for the eating tool is quite sufficient,
and efficient, for conveying their daily meals, which consist usually of
boiled rice and fish-based dishes. Isshiki Hachiro has argued that it is due
to the Japanese fondness for rice and fish that from early on, they turned to
chopsticks as their eating impliment and turned their back on forks and
knives. For not only can chopsticks transport rice from the bowl to the
mouth, he explains, they are also convenient and effective for separating

Van Esterik, Food Culture in Southeast Asia, 5.

Mukai 6c Hashimoto, 136-139.

Chopsticks: a cultural and culinary history

and removing bones from the fish meat, the most common food ingredient
in Japanese cookery/^ Isshiki’s explanation, obviously, needs qualifica-
tion because rice and fish are also central to Southeast Asian cuisines, but
the Vietnamese are the only chopstick users in the region. Moreover,
although the Japanese are well known for their fondness for rice, some
research, such as that by Emiko Ohnuki-Tierney, an anthropology profes-
sor at the University of Wisconsin, has found that before the mid-
nineteenth century, ordinary Japanese did not, or could not afford to, eat
rice on a daily basis. Instead it was quite common for them to mix rice with
red beans and other ingredients. In other words, it is a myth that the
Japanese have always been committed rice eaters; some may even argue
that their rice fondness reflects a longing for the luxury.'^

If the Vietnamese and Japanese are exclusive chopsticks users today,
the latter did not use the utensil until about the seventh century.
Information about the early history of Japan is found in Chinese histor-
ical texts. Chen Shou’s History of the Three Kingdoms of the third
century is an example, which contains descriptions of certain aspects of
the Japanese life of the period. Chen records that the Japanese grew rice
and hemp, and that they bred silkworms on mulberry trees to produce
silk. As for their food habits, according to Chen, the Japanese used their
hands to bring foods from wooden bowls or bamboo baskets to their
mouth. If this was the case, then it did not change for several centuries. In
the History of the Sui (Sui shu), compiled between 621 and 636 by court
historians in Tang China, the dietary customs in Japan are described as
follows: “The Japanese usually did not have trays and/or plates; holding
food instead in leaves, they used their hands to carry them to their
mouths. ” In both accounts, the Japanese are depicted as skilled fishermen
who preferred fish and clams to animal meat. Chen Shou’s book even
points out that large land animals, such as cattle, horse, tiger, leopard and
sheep, were nonexistent in Japan.

While accepting the information given by the History of the Sui, Mukai
Yukiko and Hashimoto Keiko have surmised that beginning in the seventh

Isshiki, Hashi no Bunkashi, 40.

Emiko Ohnuki-Tierney, Rice as Self: Japanese Identities through Time (Princeton:
Princeton University Press, 1993); and Penelope Francks, “Consuming Rice: Food,
‘Traditional’ Products and the History of Consumption in Japan,” Japan Forum,, 19:2
(2007), 151-155.

Chen, San’guozhi - “Wei Shu” (History of Wei), HDWZK, 855; and Wei Zheng, Suishu
(History of the Sui dynasty) - “Dongyi - woguo” (Barbarians in the east - Japan),
HDWZK, 1827.

Forming a chopsticks cultural sphere

century, some upper-class Japanese were possibly already turning to chop-
sticks and spoons for eating meals, for the Tang history records that in 607
and 608, Ono no Imoko, a Japanese court official, was twice sent by
Empress Suiko as an official envoy (Kenzuishi) to meet Emperor Yang of
the Sui dynasty in China. Ono no Imoko’s trips marked the beginning of a
series of missions launched by the Japanese government to learn about
Chinese culture. While in China (and taught by the Chinese), Ono no
Imoko and his entourage learned for the first time how to use chopsticks
and a spoon as a set of eating implements. And on Ono no Imoko’s first
return trip. Emperor Y ang of Sui China also sent his envoy Pei Shiqing (Hai
Seisei in Japanese) with twelve staff members to accompany him back to
Japan. Both Pei and Ono no Imoko introduced the custom of using utensils
for eating food to the Japanese court, a custom that was embraced with
great enthusiasm.

In 618 the Sui dynasty was replaced by the Tang in China. But the
Japanese enthusiasm for importing Chinese culture did not wane; rather, it
intensified. As a result, Chinese influences - tairikufu (lit. mainland wind)
or tofu (lit. Tang wind) in Japanese - swept over the Japanese islands and
continued unabated until the later part of the ninth century. As Prince
Shotoku (57Z-62Z) took a strong interest in Tang political institutions and
legal code, his effort inspired others to emulate and import other aspects of
Chinese culture into Japan. The official missions sent by the Japanese court
to China were now called Kentoshi, reflecting the Sui and Tang dynastic
transition. After a total of thirteen missions, the last Kentoshi mission went
to China in 893. Mahayana Buddhism, which had reached Japan via
Korea previously, developed a stronger presence in Japan through those
envoys as well as through the Chinese missionaries who managed to cross
the sea and land in Japan. In addition, Japanese Buddhist converts, such as
Ennin, made trips to visit China. While the Japanese court and aristocrats
became enthralled by Chinese culture, the ordinary Japanese still used their
hands to convey food in the period. Verses in the Collection of Ten
Thousand Leaves (Manyoshu), compiled in the mid-eighth century,
described how the Japanese placed foods in baskets woven from bamboo
peelings at home and used tree leaves to hold them while away from home.
This description echoed the record in the Fiistory of the Sui quoted above.

Archaeology shows that chopsticks began to appear in seventh-century
Japan, as compared to only spoons in previous ages. Excavations of Yayoi
cultural remains (c. third century bce) in Toro, Shizuoka and in Karako,

Mukai 6c Hashimoto, Hashi, 44-45; and Isshiki, Hashi no Bunkashi, 54.

Chopsticks: a cultural and culinary history

Nara, for example, yielded only wooden spoons or ladles, which might be
serving utensils. (Several wooden sticks were found in Toro. They were
3 5 cm in length and 0.2-0. 6 cm in diameter; it is believed that they were not
eating utensils.) Yet in 646, or several decades after Ono no Imoko’s
mission to China, Japan produced what scholars believe to be the earliest
example of chopsticks, suggesting a connection between chopsticks use
and Chinese cultural influence. These chopsticks were found in the remains
of the Itabuki Palace of the Asuka City in Nara, an imperial capital
between 592 and 693. Made of cypress wood (hinoki in Japanese), a
common evergreen tree in Japan, these chopsticks were thicker in the
middle with either one pointed end or both ends tapering off in shape.
Their length was between 30 and 33 cm and the diameter of their pointed
ends was between 0.3 and i.o cm. Another group of chopsticks surfaced in
the remains of the Fujiwara Palace of the Fujiwara City, which was Japan’s
capital between 694 and 710. These chopsticks were also made of hinoki
wood, the same material used in constructing the Palace. Their shapes,
with two pointed ends, also resembled the ones found in the Itabuki Palace.
But their length was much shorter (between 15 and 23 cm) and their
thickness at the bottom was between 0.4 and 0.7 cm. These differences
have led Mukai and Hashimoto to speculate that these two groups of
chopsticks had been made for different purposes. Those found at the
Itabuki Palace were longer serving utensils in ritual ceremonies whereas
the ones in Fujiwara Palace were more likely used for meals and thrown
away by the workers who constructed the Palace.^*’

In 710 the imperial court moved again, from Fujiwara to Heijo, located
in today’s Nara Prefecture. And in Heijo, which served as the capital city
between 710 and 784, a total of fifty-four hinoki chopsticks were discov-
ered in the ditches and wells around the Heijo Palace where the imperial
kitchen was located. All of them had a similar shape: thicker in the middle
with one or two tapered-off ends. Their lengths varied from 1 3 cm to 2 1 cm
and their diameter was about 0.5 cm. In 1988 an even greater discovery
was made in Heijo: in the vicinity of Todaiji, one of the oldest and biggest
Buddhist temples built in the Nara Period, no fewer than 200 hinoki
chopsticks were found, with designs similar to the ones unearthed earlier.
They were about 25 cm long. Their pointed lower end was 0.5 cm and their
thicker and rounder top was 1.5 cm in diameter. Mukai and Hashimoto
again believe that the chopsticks found in both the Heijo Palace and Todaiji
were likely abandoned by the workers after being used as eating utensils.

Mukai 8 c Hashimoto, Hashi, 21-22.

Forming a chopsticks cultural sphere

Archaeologists also uncovered wooden chopsticks in Iba, Shizuoka, the
remains of a cultural site of the late eighth century. Of the same hinoki
cypress wood, these chopsticks were between 2z and z6 cm long, with a
diameter of 0.6 cm. Carefully polished, they were thicker in the middle -
polyhedral in shape - with two slightly sharpened ends. This finding sug-
gested that by the eighth century, chopsticks use perhaps was no longer
simply a lavish and exotic custom for the royal family and Buddhist
converts.

The characteristics of all the chopsticks found from early Japan were
similar to those uncovered in Sui and Tang China: they were rounder
in the middle with either one pointed lower end or with two tapered-off
ends. The Tang chopsticks also varied in length, between 18 and 33 cm.
Averaging 24 cm, they were longer than their counterparts from earlier
periods in China. Thus the discovery of wooden chopsticks in Japan is
significant for studying the history of chopsticks in East Asia generally.
First, from the same period, or Sui-Tang China, few wooden chopsticks
have been unearthed in China; wooden chopsticks mostly appear in
Tang literature, in addition to those made of gold, jade, rhinoceros
horn and aromatic wood.^^ Second, whether wood or metal, many of
the chopsticks found in Japan and China from the period share the same
design: a round body and two tapered-off ends. While being copied and
retained in Japan (for reasons to be discussed below and in later chap-
ters), however, this design seems prevalent only in Sui-Tang China, and
not in later periods. The other shape, with only one tapered-off end at the
bottom, became more common in China. Their other end, or the sticks’
top, became four-sided, possibly to prevent chopsticks rolling off the
table. This type of chopsticks has also been quite popular in Vietnam,
as mentioned before. And third, if some of the Japanese wooden chop-
sticks were indeed being thrown away by construction workers working
on the site, then those might well be the earliest disposable chopsticks in
the world.

Beginning in the eighth century, chopsticks also appeared in Japanese
texts. The Records of Ancient Matters (Kojiki) and the Chronicles of Japan
(Nihon shoki), two of the earliest histories from the early part of the
century, both contain stories featuring chopsticks. The utensil is also
mentioned in other texts. In their account book, for example, the
Buddhist monks in Todaiji record that the Temple received tortoiseshell
chopsticks as a donation. In addition, the record shows that a special pair

Ibid., 22-24.

Liu, Zhongguo zhu wenhuashi^ 222-223.

Ibid., 221-222.

Chopsticks: a cultural and culinary history

of wooden chopsticks, made of ziricote wood (a tree that supposedly is
native to South America) was kept in its stores. Ironically, these two
unusual pairs have not survived today, while the much more mundane
hinoki chopsticks, discarded perhaps by the workers or monks after use,
were later unearthed around the Temple, as mentioned above.

The records at this Buddhist Temple do suggest that in the period, the
Japanese continued to bring back chopsticks from outside Japan, or
hakurai no hashi (lit. overseas chopsticks). And these imported chopsticks
were made of various materials, including silver and various types of
alloyed copper. The Procedures of the Engi Era (Engishiki), a ninth-
century compendium of rituals and laws compiled by imperial fiat in
Japan, shows that like their counterparts in China and also in Korea, the
Japanese upper class also favored metal chopsticks, such as those of silver
and cupronickel. Since the metal chopsticks might be imports. The
Procedures of the Engi Era specifies that these were reserved only for
Japanese royalty and the top noble class. Anyone below rank six was
only supposed to use the bamboo variety. Yet the bamboo chopsticks
might also have been imports, for no bamboo chopsticks have hitherto
surfaced in archaeological sites of early Japan. Bamboo does grow in
Japan. But bamboo chopsticks have not been as common in Japan as in
China and Vietnam (a subject deserving some explanation below).

When Ono no Imoko first brought chopsticks from China to Japan, he
demonstrated their use together with the spoon, for this was how he
learned to use them back in China. During the following two or three
centuries, or from Nara (710-794) to Heian Japan (794-1185), Japanese
royalty and aristocrats continually followed this time-honored Chinese
custom. The Tale of the Hollow Tree (Utsubo Monogatari), a literary
text describing the noble life in Japan written in 970, records an instance
where after a nobleman’s wife gave birth to her child, the family received a
variety of gifts - cooked dishes and food vessels and utensils. Both silver
chopsticks and spoons were included in the utensils. In The Pillow Book
(Makura no soshi), another literary text from the tenth and early eleventh
centuries, the author, a court lady, says that as she was writing, she heard
clanking noises from the next room where some others were using both
metal spoons and chopsticks to dine.^^ Over time, however, the Chinese
influence waned in Japan. Metal utensils became less common, as did the
custom of using both a spoon and chopsticks as a set in dining. According

Mukai 6c Hashimoto, Hashi, z6. Ibid., 31, 49.

Isshiki, Hashi no Bunkashi, Mukai 6c Hashimoto, 47.

Forming a chopsticks cultural sphere

to the Assorted Records of Kitchen Matters (Chuji ruiki), a recipe book
from the thirteenth century, silver chopsticks were only for eating appe-
tizers whereas the wooden variety was for transferring rice, the main grain
food. And the two varieties also differed in length: the silver was longer and
the wooden shorter.^'*

The decline of Chinese influence after Heian Japan might have caused a
decreased interest, or disinterest, among the Japanese in making bamboo
chopsticks. The Japanese had used bamboo to make household items.
The History of the Sui and the Collection of Ten Thousand Leaves both
record that the Japanese made bamboo baskets to hold food, a tradition
that still can be seen in some parts of Japan today. Bamboo is portrayed
positively in Japanese literature and folklore. The Tale of the Bamboo
Cutter (Taketori monogatari), the oldest extant monogatari, a special
literary genre in Japan, contains a well-known bamboo cutter story. One
day in the bamboo forest, the bamboo cutter discovered a beautiful girl
inside the stalk of a bamboo plant and he brought her home. While raising
her with his wife as their daughter, he always found gold in the stalks of
bamboo plants whenever he went to cut them. When the girl came of age,
her beauty attracted many suitors, including even the reigning emperor.
But she rejected all of them and explained that, as a goddess from the
moon, she had to leave the earth and return there. And she did exactly that
to end the story.

Since stories about a bamboo cutter also appear in the poems of the
Collection of Ten Thousand Leaves, this folktale could have had a
Japanese origin. Meanwhile, the unfolding of the story might have also
registered Chinese influences. Japanese researchers have lately pointed out
that the bamboo girl’s revelation as a moon goddess and her departure
from the earth could have been adapted from Chinese folktales. The
famous Chang’e legend, describing a young woman growing up on earth
with aspirations to live on the moon - she eventually became the goddess
there - was proverbial in China since antiquity. According to the Chinese
fairytale, there was a woodcutter named Wu Gang living on the moon. In
Sichuan, China, where bamboo is particularly common, there were also
stories about a girl growing up in a bamboo stalk.

Bamboo chopsticks appeared in the Records of Ancient Matters and
the Chronicles of Japan. When Empress Jingu decided to invade Korea,

"'t Ibid., 49.

Cf. Ito Seiji, Kaguya-hime no tanjo: Kodai setsuwa no kigen (The birth of the bamboo girl:
origins of ancient legends) (Tokyo: Kodansha, 1973).

Chopsticks: a cultural and culinary history

she sought the gods’ blessings for her campaign. The Empress ordered her
soldiers to burn a hinoki tree into ashes and throw them, together with
plates made of kashiwa tree leaves (kashiwa is another evergreen cypress
tree in Japan) and bamboo chopsticks, into the sea as offerings to the sea
and mountain gods. These items, especially the bamboo chopsticks, floated
in the sea, accompanying her fleet to the Korean Peninsula. All this
worked; the Empress succeeded in her invasion and consequently ruled
Korea in the early third century. Besides the legend, there is evidence that
some chopsticks were made of bamboo in Japan. The manabashi, a kind of
cooking chopsticks for preparing fish-based dishes, are a well-known
example. The manabashi, which nowadays are more likely to be made of
wood or even metal, are usually longer than the wooden chopsticks the
Japanese use to eat food.

However, Empress Jingu’s use of bamboo chopsticks is the only men-
tion in the two early histories. In all the other mentions in the Records of
Ancient Matters and the Chronicles of Japan, the chopsticks were made of
wood. One story that is recorded in both texts says when Susano no
Mikoto, a kami (deity in Japanese) was sent down from Heaven and
walking along a river, he saw chopsticks flowing down in the stream.
This sighting led him to believe that there must have been people living
in the upper part of the river. He went upstream and did find a family. This
story shows that by this time (or by the eighth century) when the two
historical texts were compiled, the Japanese took it for granted that
humans used chopsticks to eat food. Were those chopsticks floating in
the river being used in pairs? One poem in the Collection of Ten Thousand
Leaves offers an answer. It describes the sadness of a man over the loss of
his brother. “Our parents raised both of us like a pair of chopsticks facing
each other,” the man deplores, “how come my brother’s life was as
ephemeral as the morning dew?”"^^

As Japan is a country boasting a high percentage of forestation of its
land, wood is readily available throughout the Japanese archipelago. Thus,
wooden chopsticks are most common in Japan. Cypress and pine trees
are widely available; of the former, the Japanese favor hinoki and sugi
cypresses. As evergreens, these trees have come to symbolize the vitality of
life in Japanese culture. There is a tradition among the Japanese of worship-
ing old trees by referring to them as shinboku (or divine trees), which often
draw flocks of pilgrims. As such, chopsticks made of cypress wood receive
high status, as opposed to those of other materials, bamboo included.

2.6

Isshiki, Hashi no Bunkashi, 8-9. Mukai & Hashimoto, Hashi, 45-46.

Forming a chopsticks cultural sphere

Isshiki Hachiro in his book discusses the hashisugi shinko, or a worship
of the chopsticks made of sugi cypress wood, practiced among many
Japanese throughout the centuries. Besides sugi, other varieties of
wood - for example, hinoki cypress and willow trees - are also commonly
used in making celebratory chopsticks.

Tree worship is a Shinto belief, and thus the Japanese fondness for
wooden objects, and wooden chopsticks in particular, extends the influ-
ence of Shintoism. According to Shintoism, trees (along with rocks, rivers,
mountains, etc.) were one of the “natural forces” that carried the spirit
of nature in the “land of the kami,” as Japan was referred to by Shinto
believers. Trees have their own spirits, or kodama. To be close to and
pay homage to the kodama, the Japanese only use undressed lumber to
construct Shinto shrines. Inside the shrine, furniture and utensils are also
mostly made of bare wood, without paint or lacquer, even though Japan
was first known to the West as a country of lacquer paint and lacquerware.
Occasionally, one can find bamboo objects at Shinto shrines, such as the
ladles provided for the visitors for washing their hands before entering the
shrine, but wooden objects are far more common.

Shintoism has influenced Japanese chopsticks culture in many ways,
including how chopsticks are made and how they are used. To prolong the
life of wooden chopsticks, for instance, one can paint them with lacquer, a
practice seen in both China and Japan. Lacquered chopsticks are known in
Japanese as nuribashi, which has a number of varieties, depending on
where they are made and what types of paint (lacquer being just one
kind) are used in glossing them. But like the use of undressed wood at
Shinto shrines, the unpainted and slightly polished whitewood chopsticks,
or shirakibashi, are regarded as being of the highest status by the Japanese,
perhaps because without paint, these whitewood chopsticks allow their
users to have unimpeded communication with nature, or the tree spirit. As
such, whitewood chopsticks, made of willow or cypress wood, have tradi-
tionally been used at religious ceremonies in shrines and temples. The idea
is that as kami and people form a connected living in the world, they also
share their foods together - using whitewood chopsticks maximizes this
connection. Hence these whitewood chopsticks are generally referred to as
ohashi (honored chopsticks), but depending on their use, they can also be
called shinhashi (divine chopsticks) or reibashi (spiritual chopsticks). Since
the emperor in Japan is believed to be a Shinto deity, Japanese royalty also
use whitewood chopsticks.

2.8

Isshiki, Hashi no Bunkashi, 11-15.

Chopsticks: a cultural and culinary history

Buddhism also shaped the chopstick culture in Japan - their preference
for whitewood chopsticks included - in important ways. Buddhist tenets
shun worldly attachments, including meat and other lavish food, hence
in Buddhist temples across Asia, monks and nuns eat simple meals, con-
sisting mostly of porridge and vegetables. Ennin’s Diary mentions how the
Japanese Buddhist was treated as such when he took lodging in Buddhist
temples in Tang China. This emphasis on simple meals extends to simple
utensils. Indeed, if chopsticks were to become the exclusive tool in convey-
ing meals, it is quite likely that Buddhist monks piloted this practice before
anyone else. And the most common chopsticks used by Buddhist monks
are made of wood or other inexpensive materials.

In the mid-eighth century, or about a century before Ennin went to
China, Jianzhen (688-763), a Chinese Buddhist missionary, landed in
Japan after several failed attempts, not long after chopsticks had been
introduced to Japanese royalty and nobility. Tan Xiang, a private collector
of chopsticks in China, speculates that as the Chinese monks dined with
chopsticks, this exemplary dining style influenced the Japanese, causing a
broad conversion. As Ono no Imoko taught the Japanese court to eat
with utensils. Tan argues the Chinese Buddhist monks possibly helped
spread the dining custom among the ordinary Japanese. Since a number of
wooden chopsticks were unearthed at Todaiji, where Jianzhen had presided
after arriving in Japan, Tan’s speculation becomes plausible. Buddhist influ-
ence was also registered in Japanese culinary tradition. The famed kaiseki-
ryori (kaiseki cuisine, a multi-course dinner) had originated in Buddhist
temples. While the kaiseki-ryori has now become both exquisite and expen-
sive, the utensil required for eating the meal remains a pair of plain white-
wood chopsticks. Incidentally, Japanese chopsticks etiquette - placing
chopsticks horizontally on the table and raising them politely with both
hands before eating - has also been found in Buddhist temples elsewhere.

The chopsticks used to eat kaiseki-ryori are also called rikyubashi,
because Sen no Rikyu ( 1 5 22-1 59 1 ), a Zen Buddhist monk and tea master,
gave the formal meal its name. The rikyubashi, or “rikyii chopsticks,” are
thicker in the middle and thinner at both ends, resembling the design of the
chopsticks uncovered from early Japan, as well as that of their counter-
parts in Tang China. With two tapered-off ends, this style of chopsticks is

Lan Xiang, Kuaizi, buzhishi kuaizi (Chopsticks, not only chopsticks) (Taipei: Maitian,
2011), 271-274. Lan Xiang also points out that in Buddhist temples in China, monks
place their chopsticks horizontally on the table and raise them with both hands before
eating, 159.

Forming a chopsticks cultural sphere

also known as ryokuchibashi (lit. two-ended chopsticks), as opposed to
katakuchibashi (lit. one-ended chopsticks) - chopsticks with only pointed
bottoms. One reason for using rikyubashi, or ryokuchibashi, to eat the
kaiseki-ryori, as one believes today, is that since the meal consists of several
courses, one can use the chopsticks’ different ends to convey different food
contents, and relish each dish in its purity. But the chopsticks, usually plain
wood, are also required on other formal occasions, religious or celebra-
tory, which will be discussed in later chapters.

The idea of using different chopsticks to convey different food
items did not start with kaiseki-ryori in Japan. The Assorted Records of
Kitchen Matters, cited before, has already suggested that silver chop-
sticks be used for appetizers but the wooden pair for rice. In later years,
people used manabashi, or fish chopsticks, to convey seafood dishes and
saibashi (lit. vegetable chopsticks) for vegetables. Both chopsticks are
tapered off at one end, making them katakuchibashi-, only manabashi is
longer than saibashi. During the Muromachi period (1337-1573),
Japanese culinary practice reached a level of sophistication, marked by
the creation of honzen ryori, a multi-course meal, even though the term
literally means “main-course meal.” To eat a honzen ryori, one initially
also employed both manabashi and saibashi; the former separated bones
from fish or mined out meat in a clam whereas the latter gripped vegeta-
bles. But toward the late sixteenth century, states Xu Jingbo, author of a
history of Japanese food culture, most Japanese began to use only one
pair of chopsticks to eat the meal. This pair tended to have sharply
pointed ends for the convenience of eating seafood, as did manabashi,
but were short in length like saibashi. This design remains popular in
Japan today, distinguishing Japanese chopsticks from their counterparts
in Asia (Plate 16).^°

In the Korean Peninsula, chopsticks use possibly has a longer history than
it does in Japan. Chopsticks were not the first eating tool used by Koreans;
archaeological evidence indicates that the spoon was the first eating imple-
ment used by people in the Korean Peninsula. The earliest spoon found in
Korea was made of bone. It was located in the Rajin Remains of the
Hamgyong Province in today’s North Korea dated 700-600 bce. In
another archaeological site, in the Rakrang Prefecture near Pyongyang,
lacquered wooden spoons were discovered, which were dated between 108

Xu Jingbo, Riben yinshi wenhua: lishi yu xianshi {Food culture in Japan: past and present)
(Shanghai: Shanghai renmin chubanshe, 2009), 87, 127. Also Isshiki, Hashi no Bunkashi,
130-131.

Chopsticks: a cultural and culinary history

and 313 BCE.^^ The earliest example of chopsticks, made of bronze, was
dated in the early sixth century, or during Korea’s Three Kingdoms period
(53-668), and was found in a royal tomb of a Baekje King, who ruled during
501-523 CE. Baekje was one of the three kingdoms; the other two were
Goguryeo and Silla. These chopsticks were uncovered together with some
bronze spoons in the tomb, suggesting that the Korean court might have
employed both of them for their meals. As evidence that this was an extension
of the Chinese custom, these chopsticks were comparable in design to the
Chinese chopsticks of the period. They were thicker and rounder in the middle
with two slightly pointed ends - the top was o. 5 cm in diameter and the bottom
was 0.3 cm in diameter. And they were approximately 21 cm long, within the
range of the chopsticks found contemporaneously in China and Japan.

Prior to the Three Kingdoms period, around the second century bce,
Han China had established four military commanderies in the northern
part of the Korean Peninsula, which were more or less in existence for
approximately four centuries. Little evidence, however, suggests that these
Chinese military presences in Korea had influenced the locals’ dining
habits. In fact, since the Coguryeo Kingdom arose in the same area as
early as the first century bce, one may surmise that these Han command-
eries were in constant battle against Koreans throughout their existence.
But the Baekje Kingdom, located in the southwest of the Peninsula, kept in
contact with the Chinese regimes through the sea route during the post-
Han periods, and to a lesser degree so did Silla. After the Tang dynasty rose
to power in China, Tang rulers allied with Silla and put down both Baekje
and Coguryeo, ending the Three Kingdoms period in Korea. As such, Tang
historians described Coguryeo, Silla and Baekje, not only their contact
with the dynasty but also their geography, culture and history. Yet the
Chinese texts from the period make no comment on whether Koreans then
used eating tools, except to say that they “liked to squat on the floor and
eat food on short-legged tables.

Since the Baekje Kingdom made regular contact with the Chinese
government, sending tributes to the latter, could the chopsticks and spoons
found in its king’s tomb be a return gift from a Chinese ruler? This like-
lihood certainly exists, for there is no corroborating textual evidence that
Koreans had applied eating utensils for meals. The history of the Three
Kingdoms is also covered in the Korean historical texts - Kim Pu-sik’s

Mukai & Hashimoto, Hashi, 14-20.

Li, Beishi - “Gaogeli” (Goguryeo), HDWZK, 3116; and Wei, Suishu - “Dongyi-Gaoli”
(Eastern barbarians - Goryeo), HDWZK, 1814.

Forming a chopsticks cultural sphere

Historical Records of the Three Kingdoms (Samguk sagi) and Iryon’s
Memorabilia of the Three Kingdoms (Samguk yusa), appearing respec-
tively in the early twelfth and early thirteenth centuries. But neither men-
tions that chopsticks had been used in the Three Kingdoms either. But
toward the late Three Kingdoms period, Chinese influence had a stronger
presence in the Peninsula. Confucianism, Daoism and Buddhism all exerted
their impact on shaping the fabric of Korean society, with a varying degree
of regional characteristics. Moreover, in ending the Kingdom, the Tang
army invaded and occupied part of the former Goguryeo territory. One
could thus imagine that ordinary Koreans became exposed to Chinese
dietary customs. In a word, most Koreans could have begun using eating
tools around the sixth century.

In the wake of the Tang dynasty’s fall, the Korean Peninsula saw the rise
of a new dynasty - the Goryeo dynasty (918-139Z), unifying the land in
936. Goryeo Korea was an important time in Korean history - the term
“Korea” even stems from it. Many examples of chopsticks from this period
have been discovered across the Peninsula. All these excavated chopsticks
were made of silver, brass or other alloyed copper. Their shape took on
that of the earlier examples, having a round or polyhedral body and two
thinner ends. And wherever the chopsticks were found, there were always
accompanying spoons for them; and the latter were usually made of the
same material. All this suggests that the custom of utensil use became
widely practiced among Koreans. And like the Ghinese in Tang China,
when transporting food, Koreans at that time used both a spoon and
chopsticks, a dining habit that is still recommended in Korean society
today.

Perhaps because the Korean Peninsula lies approximately on the same
latitude as North China, the foodways in these two regions were/are
similar. While failing to describe how Koreans in early days ate their
meals, the Tang Chinese historical texts do record, rather consistently,
that the Peninsula’s agronomy bore notable similarities to China’s. For
instance, Li Yanshou’s History of the Northern Dynasties (Beishi), written
in the mid-sixth century, describes that in Silla, “the land is fertile and
crops are planted in both wet and dry fields. Silla’s five cereal grains, fruits
and vegetables, birds and animals, and other produces are more or less the
same as those in China.” Other Tang texts reiterate Li’s description verba-
tim.^ ^ However, like other ancient writers, Li and others fail to specify what

Li, Beishi - “Xinluo” (Silla), HDWZK, 3123; and Wei, Suishu - “Dongyi-Xinluo”

(Eastern barbarians - Silla), HDWZK, 1821.

Chopsticks: a cultural and culinary history

the five grains were. Since Li mentions that Koreans grew crops in both wet
and dry fields, rice might be one of them. But like in North China, rice seems
not to be the leading grain, for it only appears twice in Kim Pu-sik’s
Historical Records of the Three Kingdoms, while millet appears nineteen
times and wheat eleven times. Interestingly, while mentioning wheat a
number of times, Kim Pu-sik often describes it in contexts such as how the
crop was damaged by drought or frost. In a nutshell, millet had to be the
grain crop more favored by Koreans, as it was resistant to both drought
and flood.

About the same time that Kim Pu-sik’s Historical Records of the Three
Kingdoms was written, Xu Jing (1091-1163), a Chinese envoy sent by
Emperor Huizong of the Northern Song dynasty (960-1127), visited
Korea in 1123 and wrote a comprehensive travelogue - An Illustrated
Record of the Chinese Embassy to the Goryeo Court during the Xuanhe
Era (Xuanhe fengshi Gaoli tujing). It offers a comprehensive description of
the Korean Peninsula. Besides wheat, barley and rice, Xu notes that several
varieties of millet were grown in Korea. He also points out that the price of
wheat was quite high because it was planted only in certain regions. With
respect to rice, Xu observes that only the geng (sinicaljaponica) rice variety
was planted in Korea, not the xian (indica) or the nuo (sticky/sweet)
varieties. In other words, like wheat, rice was rare, hardly a grain staple
for Koreans at the time. When Xu notices that Koreans only grew sinica/
japonica rice, he is possibly making a comparison with the situation in
China, for this was in the age when indica rice, especially the Champa
variety, began to be introduced into South China. This introduction made
rice more available to the Chinese (a topic to be treated in the next
chapter). All in all, Xu Jing’s account demonstrates that before the twelfth
century, the foodway in the Korean Peninsula was comparable to those of
North China before and during the Tang period.

Like the earlier texts, Xu Jing’s account fails to mention whether or not
Koreans by that time used spoon and/or chopsticks for meals. But he gives
detailed information on other utensils in Korean life, such as the bowls,
plates, basins, bottles, jars and other kitchen objects that were made of

Kim Pu-sik, Samguk sagi, annotated by Sun Wenfan (Changchun: Jilin wenshi chubanshe,
2003). About how wheat was damaged by the inclement weather, see 41, 133, 212, 282,
289 and 312.

Xu Jing, Xuanhe fengshi Gaoli tujing (Illustrated record of the Chinese embassy to the
Goryeo court during the Xuanhe era), in Shi Chaoxian lu (Records of Chinese embassies to
Korea), eds. Yin Mengxia 6c Yu Hao (Beijing: Beijing tushuguan chubanshe, 2003 ), vol. i,
180, 186 and 262.

Forming a chopsticks cultural sphere

brass, ceramic and wood (often painted with lacquer). Xu is particularly
impressed by the quality of metalcraft in Korea and the way Koreans
plated the metal objects with gold or silver, as the latter were more pre-
cious. He also praises the color and texture of the celadon-ware produced
in Korea at that time.^*’ Since Xu Jing does not mention that Koreans used
dining tools, one easy conclusion might be that these had not been adopted
in Korean society. But from another perspective, one might say that
Koreans already did because Xu was quite watchful and observant on
his trip. Had Koreans not already used spoons and chopsticks, he would
most likely have pointed it out in his account.

In the late Goryeo Period, rice seems to have increased its appeal,
though slowly. In the History of the Goryeo Dynasty (Goryeosa), a
multi-volume work compiled during the mid-fifteenth century, rice is
mentioned more frequently than in earlier texts; it had also become a
reserve grain stored in government granaries for famine relief. Moreover,
the royal court rewarded loyal and model officials with rice. These
instances show that rice had become more available, if also rare and
valuable. But the text also mentions millet the most, far more frequently
than all other cereals in popularity. This indicates that for most Koreans,
millet remained their staple starchy food. As such, perhaps, it was under-
standable for them to continue the dining custom of Tang China and use
both a spoon and chopsticks together in eating a meal. Both were present
in the excavations from the Goryeo dynasty and the following Joseon
dynasty (139Z-1897). Already discussed in Chapter 2, millet is best
cooked into gruel and porridge, making the spoon a better eating tool
than chopsticks.

When in Korea, Xu Jing was quite struck by the high quality of metal-
work. Did the advanced technology in metallurgy that he saw help account
for the phenomenon that, in contrast to Japan, to date the overwhelming
majority of the utensils that have been unearthed from early Korea are
made of metal instead of wood? It is certainly a possibility because without
question, whether made of silver or brass, metal utensils are much more
durable, and thus preferred by many users. Of course, for ordinary
Koreans, it is hard to imagine that they could all afford the metal variety,
let alone those made of silver. But even the less wealthy families might still
desire metal utensils for their durability, such as those fashioned from brass
and cupronickel. Perhaps a more important reason is that the Korean
Peninsula, and especially the northern part, is rich with gold, iron and

Ibid., 191, 275.

Chopsticks: a cultural and culinary history

copper, making it relatively easy for Koreans to make everyday utensils
from metal. By contrast, bamboo is not as common in the Peninsula as in
China and Vietnam. One could even add that Koreans’ fondness for metal,
especially gold, is shown in their family names - as of today, about twenty-
five percent of Koreans are named Kim, which means “gold.” And in East
Asian culture, gold often stands for all metals. Last but not least, one might
consider Tang China’s lasting influence. Although the dynasty fell in early
tenth-century China as an important power in East Asia, Tang culture and
customs retained an exemplary and enduring influence in China and its
neighboring regions for many centuries. Koreans’ preference for metal
utensils might be an example of this influence, since metal chopsticks and
spoons also constitute the majority of the food utensils excavated from the
Tang period.

During the late Goryeo Period, the rise of the Mongols and their sub-
sequent invasion of the Korean Peninsula occasioned a significant change
in Korean food and culinary culture. For the Mongols, it was by no means
easy to conquer Korea. Having battled Koreans for several decades, they
eventually prevailed in the 1270s and turned Korea into a province in the
massive Mongolian empire. The coming of the Mongols meant that unlike
in the previous periods, when meat had been absent from the Korean
cuisine due to Buddhist influences, meat now returned to the Korean diet
and, over time, became quite a fixture in Korean cookery, at least for
those who could afford it. The Mongolian culinary practices, such as
barbecuing and boiling (blanching) thinly sliced meat in a hot pot,
were also introduced to Koreans. Chinese travel accounts, again, offer
interesting and valuable information about how Koreans resumed meat
consumption from the thirteenth century onward. In his Illustrated Record
of the Chinese Embassy to the Goryeo Court during the Xuanhe Era,
Xu Jing observed that per Buddhist teaching, Koreans seldom ate lamb,
pork or other animal meat in the twelfth century.^*^ But when Dong Yue
(1430-1502), an envoy from Ming China to Korea in 1488, wrote his
Miscellaneous Records of Korea (Chaoxian zalu), he describes instead how
Koreans consumed beef, lamb, pork and goose, and that of the four, lamb

Yi S6ng-u, “Chosen hanto no shoku no bunka” (Food culture on the Korean Peninsula), in
Higashi Ajia no shoku no bunka (Food cultures in East Asia), eds. Ishige Naomichi et al.
(Tokyo: Heibonsha, 1981), 129-153; and Kim Ch’on-ho (Jin Tianhao), “Han, Meng
zhijian de roushi wenhua bijiao” (A comparative study of meat consumption cultures
between the Koreans and the Mongols), trans. Zhao Rongguang & Jiang Chenghua,
Shangye jingji yu guanli (Commercial economy and management), 4 (2000), 39-44.

Xu, Xuanhe fengshi Gaoli tujing, 176, 188.

Forming a chopsticks cultural sphere

was most popular. Needless to say, this marked change in food interest
registered the Mongolian influence in Korea. In other words, it was not
coincidental that metal utensils had an enduring appeal among Koreans,
which has lasted to this day. As perhaps in Tang China, where metal utensils
also seemed prevalent, the requirements associated with consuming meat-
based dishes had turned people to more durable and strong eating tools. And
in both cases, there were identifiable nomadic culinary and cultural influen-
ces, including the increased consumption of lamb and mutton and other
animal meats in general.

Traditionally, metal utensils have been most favored among the Asian
nomads, including the Mongols, Tibetans and Manchus and their ances-
tors (e.g. Xiongnu). In contrast to their agronomic neighbors (the Chinese,
Japanese, Vietnamese as well as Koreans) who used knives and forks
mostly for cooking rather than for eating, these nomads had adopted
knives and forks, especially the former, as eating implements over many
centuries. The knife was more essential because once meat was cut into
smaller portions, one could eat them by hand. This habit of using hands to
convey food, or shoushi (feeding with fingers), became a standard
expression for the Chinese to describe their neighbors’ dining habit; the
term appeared in a number of Chinese texts from the third century
onward, especially during and after the Tang dynasty when the Chinese
made more contact with other ethnic groups.

But coming into contact with the Chinese, some nomads also learned to
make and use chopsticks and spoons to cook and convey food. The begin-
ning of the chapter mentioned that the Chinese influence moved into
Vietnam because of the Qin conquest of the land during the third century
BCE. Around the same time that he sent Zhao Tuo to the south, Qinshihuang,
the Qin ruler, also commanded Meng Tian (?-2io bce), another of his
generals, to lead an army of 300,000 to fight against the Xiongnu, a powerful
nomadic group in control of the northern steppe regions. After the campaign
was over, Meng’s soldiers were deployed in the Ordos Desert, encircled by
the Great Bend of the Yellow River, and became a garrison force on the

Dong Yue, Chaoxian zalu, in Shi Chaoxian lu, voL 3, 807-808.

An early mention of the Central and South Asians who used hands to transport foods was
entered by Xuanzang in his DaTang xiyuji (Great Tang records of western regions), juan 2,
ZJGK, 19. Also, JiuTangshu - “Xirong liezhuan” (Biographies of western barbarians),
ZJGK, 2657; XinTangshu - “Xiyu” (Western regions), ZJGK, 2057; and “Nanman”
(Southern barbarians), ZJGK, 2101. A similar custom was found in Zhuawa, or today’s
Indonesia, by Fang Hui (1227-1307) in his Tongjiang xuji (Sequel to the Tongjiang
collections), 26, ZJGK, 301.

Chopsticks: a cultural and culinary history

border. In addition, Qinshihuang sent a number of forced laborers there to
construct a defensive wall in the region, which became an early part of the
Great Wall known in modern times. After the Qin’s fall, Han rulers con-
tinued the effort to push the Xiongnu back into the steppe and had inter-
mittent success. Beneath the veneer of military conflict, however, cultural
exchanges also took place. A recent archaeological excavation has uncovered
that the Xiongnu, like the Chinese in the Han, used zeng to steam grain food.
The Xiongnu also made and used bone chopsticks in transporting food."^^
This might be an isolated example; but it nevertheless shows that cultural
exchanges were hardly unidirectional. As Central Asian influences entered
Han China through contact with the nomads, Chinese culinary practices and
dining customs also extended into regions beyond China proper.

After the fall of the Tang, chaos erupted in China for several decades.
In its wake, Zhao Kuangyin (9Z7-976), a military man, rose to power
and founded the Northern Song dynasty in China proper. But the Song
territory was considerably smaller than the Tang’s because it had no
control of the pastureland, mountain ranges and desert areas in the
north and northwest. That is, the Song shared their control of the Asian
mainland with other ethnic groups, such as the Kitans, the Jurchens and
the Mongols. Song historians often commented on the social behavior
and cultural customs of these nomadic groups. The Collection of
Documents of the Song Diplomatic Relations with the Northern
Regimes (Sanchao beimeng huibian), a historical text by Xu Mengxin
(11Z6-1207), points out that the inhabitants in Manchuria were finger
feeders - no utensils were employed by them to transport food.'*^ This
observation is supported by archaeology. In the 1970s Chinese archae-
ologists discovered a Kitan tomb - the Kitans had founded the Liao
dynasty (907-1 1Z5) centered in Manchuria. Of the kitchen items that
surfaced there were pitchers, jars, pots, basins, bowls and knives, but no
chopsticks. One of the wall paintings in the tomb depicted a man (chef?)
using a knife to cut a leg of an animal, suggesting that once the meat was
cut, it would be placed on a plate - plates were found in larger quantities
than bowls in Kitan and Mongol tombs of the period - for people to
transfer it to their mouths with their hands.

¥le^Tianshan jiayan, 14^-146. Sanchao beimeng huibian Juan

Xiang Chunsong, “Liaoning Zhaowuda diqu faxian de Liaomu huihua ziliao” {Paintings
discovered in a Kitan tomb of the Zhaowuda area, Liaoning), Wenwu (Cultural relics), 6
(19751), 2.2-32.

Forming a chopsticks cultural sphere

But archaeological evidence reveals that over time, Asian nomads began
using chopsticks to convey grains, meat and vegetables. Compared with
the Mongols and the Jurchens, the Kitans were more receptive to Han
Chinese influences. Archaeological digs of a Kitan tomb in today’s Inner
Mongolia yielded several household items made of brass, silver and
porcelain, including pots, jars, vases, bowls, plates, cups and mirrors.
A pair of brass chopsticks was found among them. They were 23 cm long
with lightly carved lines decorating their top.'^"^ And this was not an
isolated case, nor did the Kitans use only metal chopsticks. Many lac-
quered wooden chopsticks have surfaced in Kitan tombs of the twelfth
century or later throughout North and Northeast China. Bone, brass
and wooden chopsticks have been found in Jurchen tombs too, showing
that chopsticks gradually became accepted among the Jurchens. At a
later time, the Mongols turned to chopsticks use too. Excavations in
Chifeng, Inner Mongolia, seem quite telling. From the 1970s to the late
1980s, mural paintings were uncovered in two tombs that belonged to
either a Kitan or a Mongol noble (the area was first controlled by the
Kitans and later by the Mongols). One painting portrays an eating scene:
on a short-legged rectangle table metal bowls, plates, spoons and chop-
sticks are placed. The mural painting found in another Chifeng tomb
offers better evidence that chopsticks were used in handling food. It
depicts an eating scene with a maid serving her master; she holds a big
bowl in her left hand and a pair of chopsticks in her right hand, as
though preparing to stir the food in the bowl with the chopsticks for
serving the master."*^ The latter tomb dates back to the fourteenth
century, hence it was more likely a Mongol tomb. The excavations
prove that after their conquest of China in the late thirteenth century,
the Mongols gradually adopted the dining custom of chopsticks use.
The court protocol of the Yuan dynasty (1271-1368), founded by the
Mongols in China, offers corroborating evidence; it specifies that a proper
court burial should contain one set of eating utensils - including bowls.

Xiang Chunsong, “Neimenggu jiefangyingzi Liao mu fajue jianbao” (Concise report on
the dig of the Liao-dynasty tomb in Jiefangyingzi, Inner Mongolia), Kaogu (Archaeology),

4 (1979), 330-334-

Liu, Zhongguo zhu wenhuashi, 280-285.

Xiang Chunsong & Wang Jianguo, “Neimeng Zhaomeng Chifeng Sanyanjing Yuandai
bihuamu” (Wall paintings in the Yuan tomb in Sanyanjing, Chifeng, Zhaomeng District,
Inner Mongolia), Wenwu^ i (1982), 54-58.

Liu Bing, “Neimenggu Chifeng Shazishan Yuandai bihuamu” (Wall paintings in the Yuan
tomb in Shazishan, Chifeng, Inner Mongolia), Wenwu, 2 (1992), 24-27.

Chopsticks: a cultural and culinary history

plates and chopsticks - for the deceased, demonstrating that the Mongols
considered chopsticks an essential eating utensil.

In sum, multiple sources have shown that by the fourteenth century the
chopsticks cultural sphere had not only become well established in today’s
China, Vietnam, Korean and Japan but also penetrated successfully into
the areas of the Mongolian steppe, Manchuria and into the Gobi and
Taklamakan Deserts in North and Northwest China. This expansion,
however, did not cause the Mongols, the Kitans and the other inhabitants
of those regions to completely forsake their more traditional utensils, such
as knives and forks. Instead, they tended to combine them with chopsticks
and used them together, though the combination could vary - chopsticks
could be grouped together with a spoon and a knife, a knife and a fork, or a
spoon and a fork.'*^ The utensils used by the Manchu court are an example,
consisting of a knife, a fork and a pair of chopsticks (Plate 9). A nomadic
group from Manchuria, the Manchus, established the Qing dynasty
(1644-1911) in the wake of the Ming dynasty’s fall. But despite their
rule in China, Manchu royalty combined the use of chopsticks with knives
and forks.

Song Lian, Yuanshi (History of the Yuan dynasty) - “Guosu jiuli” (Old rituals of our
country’s customs), HDWZK, 1925.

More examples of how the Mongols, the Manchus and their (nomadic) neighbors on the
Mongolian steppes use both knives and chopsticks are found in Lan, Kuaizi, buzhishi
kuaizi, 129-135.

PLATE I. Bone spoons unearthed at a Neolithic cultural site in Sichuan, China.
(Courtesy of Ai Zhike, the Sanxia Museum, Chongqing, China)

PLATE 2. Neolithic bone chopsticks found in Longqiuzhuang, a Neolithic cultural
site in Jiansu, China.

(Courtesy of the Yangzhou Museum, China)

PLATE 3. Neolithic bone chopsticks (the two thin sticks in the lower part) in Longqiuzhuang.
(Courtesy of the Yangzhou Museum, China)

p LATE 4 . This brick carving shows how chopsticks were used in early China, c. first
century ce.

(Zhongguo huaxiangzhuan quanji [Complete collections of Chinese brick
carvings], ed. Yu Weichao, Chengdu: Sichuan meishu chubanshe, 2006, p.

PLATE 5 . Eating customs in early China - sitting on the floor with foods placed on
short-legged tables, shown on a brick carving, first to third centuries ce.
(Zhongguo lidai yishu: huihua bian [Chinese art in different dynasties: painting],
Beijing: Renmin Meishu Chubanshe, 1994, part i, p. jz)

PLATE 6. Brick painting from the Fresco Tombs of the Wei and Jin Dynasty
showing chopsticks used as utensils for cooking in early China, c. third-fifth
centuries ce.

(Painting from the Fresco Tombs of the Wei and fin Dynasty located in the
Northwestern Gobi desert 20 km from fiayuguan city. Mural paintings in
fiayuguan, fiuquan tombs of the Wei and fin periods, ed. Zhang Baoxun
[Lanzhou: Gansu renmin chubanshe, 2001], p. 261

PLATE 7. A food tray with wooden bowls and a pair of bamboo chopsticks found
in the Mawangdui Tombs, Han China, c. second century bce.

(Changsha Mawangdui yihao hanmu [Mawangdui # i Han tomb in Changsha[
(Beijing: Wenwu chubanshe, 1973), ii. p. iji.)

PLATE 8. “Fire sticks” from Edo-period Japan - used to arrange charcoals and
stoke flames - are another example of how chopsticks could be used other than as
an eating utensil.

(Courtesy of the Edo-Tokyo Museum, Japan)

PLATE 9. The Manchus usually combined the use of chopsticks with knives and forks.

(Manchurian implements, c. ijth-ipth centuries. Courtesy of Lan Xiang, a private collector of chopsticks in Shanghai)

PLATE I o. Eating and drinking in a tent tavern portrayed in a fresco in Dunhuang, a famous Buddhist grotto of Tang China, eighth-ninth
centuries.

(Dunhuang shiku quanji [Complete collections of Dunhuang Grotto murals], ed. Dunhuang yanjiuyuan, Shanghai: Shanghai renmin
chubanshe, 2001, vol. 25, p. 4j)

^ A Picnic Outside

PLATE II. “A Picnic Outside” - a mural painting of the Tang Dynasty showing that chopsticks were used to convey foods and that diners
sat on benches instead of the floor, c. eighth century.

{DaTang bihua [Mural paintings of the great Tang dynasty], eds. Tang Changdong & Li Guozhen, Xi’an: Shanxi liiyou chubanshe,
1996, p- 127)

PLATE 12. “Literary Gathering”, Zhao Ji (1082-1135). Handscroll, ink and colors
on silk, 184.4 ^ 12.3.9 cm.

(Courtesy of the National Palace Museum, Taipei)

PLATE 13. “Han Xizai’s Night Banquet,” or “The Night Revels of Han Xizai” (detail), c. 970, by Gu Hongzhong, showing that the
Chinese sat on chairs to eat individually rather than communally as in later periods. Handscroll, ink and color on silk, 28.7 cm high,
335.5 cm wide.

(Courtesy of the Palace Museum, Beijing)

PLATE 14. A mural found in a tomb from Song China (960-1127) portraying a
couple, or the Zhaos, eating together at a table on high chairs, suggesting
communal eating had begun in the family after the tenth century in China.
(Zhongguo mush bihua quanji: Song, Liao, Jin, Yuan [Complete collections of
Chinese tomb murals: Song, Liao, Jin and Yuan dynasties], Shijiazhuang: Hebei
Jiaoyu chubanshe, 2011, p. 86)

PLATE 15. A family eating together at one sitting during the Jurchen period
(c. thirteenth century), suggesting the spread of a communal eating style in Asia.
(Zhongguo mush bihua quanji: Song, Liao, Jin, Yuan [Complete collections of
Chinese tomb murals: Song, Liao, Jin and Yuan dynasties], Shijiazhuang: Hebei
Jiaoyu chubanshe, 2011, p. 114)

PLATE i6. “Women 22” by Utagawa Kuniyoshi (1797-1862). The Japanese have been accustomed to chopsticks since approximately
the seventh century, as shown in this Ukiyo-e painting, a popular genre in Edo Japan.

("Women 22” by Utagawa Kuniyoshi [1797-1862], Public Domain)

PLATE 17. “A Group of Trackers,” drawing by a European visitor to eighteenth-
century China depicting how the Chinese ate with chopsticks.

(Prom Views of Eighteenth Century China: Costumes, History, Customs,
by William Alexander & George Henry Mason, © London, Studio editions,
1988, p. 2.5;

PLATE 1 8. Portrait of Li-Lieu Ying, Empress Tzu-Hsi’s Great Eunuch, late
nineteenth century.

(Chinese School, nineteenth century. Private Collection / Bridgeman Images)

PLATE 19. “The Latest Craze of American Society, New Yorkers Dining in a
Chinese Restaurant,” Leslie Hunter (fl. 1910), Illustration from The Graphic
Magazine, 1911.

(Private Collection / The Stapleton Collection / Bridgeman Images)

PLATE zo. Pairs of chopsticks to be packed into bento boxes in Japan.
(Author’s photograph)

PLATE 21. Japanese “husband-wife chopsticks,” which are often painted with
lacquer. The pair for the husband are slightly longer and less colourful than the pair
for the wife.

(Author’s photograph)

PLATE 2 2.. Japanese festive chopsticks, shaped with two tapered ends and a round body, reflecting the belief in humans and deities
sharing food together at one meal on holidays and at festivals.

(Author’s photograph)

PLATE 2 3 . Training chopsticks, a Japanese invention, ensure that a young child can easily put the tool on his/her fingers and pick up food.
(Author’s photograph)

PLATE 24. Using Japanese chopsticks to eat soba noodles and duck meat.
(© TOHRU MINOWA/a.collectionRF/ amana images inc. I Alamy)

PLATE 2 5 . The fact that rice can be transported in clumps using chopsticks has led
to chopsticks becoming the main utensil used in Asia.

PLATE z6. Chinese chopsticks, chopstick rests, porcelain spoons and bowls at a
market stall, Stanley Market, Stanley, Hong Kong, China.

PLATE 27. Decorative chopsticks sold in Japanese stores, which are more of a gift
than an eating implement.

(Author’s photograph)

PLATE 28. Eating Chinese takeout with disposable chopsticks.
(© Kablonk RM/ Golden Pixels LLC / Alamy)

PLATE 29. Couples dressed according to Han dynasty customs eating together in a group wedding ceremony in Xi’an, China,
f© Corbis)

Using chopsticks: customs, manners
and etiquette

Another function of the two chopsticks together, that of pinching the
fragment of food; to pinch, moreover, is too strong a word, too aggressive;
for the foodstuff never undergoes a pressure greater than is precisely
necessary to raise and carry it; in the gesture of chopsticks, further softened
by their substance - wood or lacquer - there is something maternal, the
same precisely measured care taken in moving a child: a force no longer a
pulsion; here we have a whole demeanor with regard to food . . . the instru-
ment never pierces, cuts, or slits, never wounds but only selects, turns,
shifts.

Roland Barthes, Empire of Signs, i6.
Der Mensch ist was es isst (a man is what he eats).

German proverb

In ancient times, people used both spoons and chopsticks to eat food, as
recorded in histories and biographies. Korea also followed this custom.
However, when the Central Plain [China] was in chaos, hundreds and
thousands of military officers left and went east [to Korea]. When eating
food, regardless of how it was cooked, they only used chopsticks, never a
spoon. I don’t know when this way of eating began. It is said that Ming
Emperor Taizu [Zhu Yuanzhang] once vowed that before he defeated Chen
Youliang, he would not dare to use a spoon to eat and drink. He wanted to
demonstrate his resolve. From then on, eating without a spoon gradually
became adopted as a custom. However, I do not know whether this story is
believable.

Yun Kuk-Hyong (1543-1611), a Korean envoy to the Ming dynasty
(1368-1644), makes this observation in his Random Records of 1604
(Capchin Mallok), a journal chronicling his trip to China in the early

Chopsticks: a cultural and culinary history

seventeenth century/ By the time Yun went to China, it had become an
established practice for the Joseon dynasty (1392-1897) in Korea to send
cultural and diplomatic missions, biannually or annually, to Ming China
and pay tributes to the Chinese dynasty, for the Korean rulers shared the
belief with the Chinese that Confucianism was an ideal guide in govern-
ment. Schooled in Confucian learning when young, those Korean envoys
left a number of travelogues, offering valuable information on various
aspects of Ming culture and society - its food culture and dining habits
included. Yun Kuk-Hyong’s account is one of them. When he landed in
China, where Confucianism originated, Yun was surprised to see that the
Chinese did not follow the dining etiquette recommended by such
Confucian texts as the Classic of Rites, in which he himself was possibly
quite versed. He was taken aback that the Chinese he met only used
chopsticks, but not together with a spoon to eat. Yun did not quite under-
stand this (new) dining method, nor did he accept credulously the Chinese
explanation for his query.

Using chopsticks to transport both grain and nongrain foods, however,
was nothing new in seventeenth-century China. More than a century ear-
lier, Ch’oe Pu (1454-1504), a Korean Confucian scholar, had already
observed in his journal that chopsticks had become the only tool for
the Chinese to consume meals. After arriving in South China in the
sixteenth century, European travellers and missionaries made the same
observation.^ As speculated previously, since rice has long been the staple
in South China and rice can be moved in globs like sliced meat and
vegetables, the southern Chinese possibly had used, perhaps for the sake
of convenience and economy, only chopsticks for meals from antiquity.
But in their trips, Ch’oe Pu and Yun Kuk-Hyong went to North China.
When did the northern Chinese experiment with this dining method,
shedding the spoon in consuming their daily meals? In other words,
when did chopsticks become the exclusive eating tool for the Chinese
throughout China, as seen today? This becomes an intriguing question
because, as stated in Chapter 3, until the Tang dynasty, despite the
expanded chopsticks use in Chinese society, the spoon had remained

^ Yun Kuk-Hyong, Capchin Mallok, available at http://db.itkc.or.kr/itkcdb/mainIndexI
trame.jsp.

^ Ch’oe Pu, Ch'oe Pu’s Diary: A Record of Drifting across the Sea, trans. John Meskill
(Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 1965), 93, 135-136, 144, 147, 157. The European
observations were in the writings of Galeote Pereira, Caspar da Cruz and Martin De Rada
in South China in the Sixteenth Century, ed. C. R. Boxer (London: Hakluyt Society, 1953),
14, 141, 2.87.

Using chopsticks: customs, manners and etiquette

the primary implement for carrying fan (cooked grain) for the Chinese.
Instances where spoons and chopsticks were used in unison are duly
recorded in Tang literature, since the term bizhu or chizhu (spoon and
chopsticks) always appears. What happened in the periods after the Tang’s
fall in the tenth century, causing this conversion to occur throughout
China?

Actually, not only did something happen but it was also recorded in
writing. The demise of the Tang had given rise to several regimes vying for
control of China for several decades, until the victory of the Northern Song
dynasty in 960. But the Song dynasty was ineffective in defending its
northern borders. In 1127, the dynasty suffered a huge defeat in confront-
ing the Jurchen, a nomadic power from Manchuria, and subsequently
lost Kaifeng, its capital. In his memoir, Meng Yuanlao (c. 1090-1150), a
Kaifeng native who retreated to the south, reminisces about the prosperous
life the city had had, with many detailed descriptions. He mentions that
while eating out in inns and restaurants, the diners “all used chopsticks
today, instead of spoons as in older days.” As Kaifeng is located in North
China, Meng’s statement suggests that chopsticks had become the only
eating tool among the northern Chinese, if only for eating outside home, as
early as the twelfth century.^ This was a stark contrast to dietary practices
during the Tang. The Old Tang History (JiuTang shu), compiled a few
decades after the Tang in the mid-tenth century, records that Gao
Chongwen, a Tang general known for his strictness in disciplining his
army, gave the specific order that his soldiers must use both spoons and
chopsticks at local lodges. Gao would punish, according to the record,
anyone who disobeyed the order by a death penalty."^

Since people’s choice of utensil often results from the type of food
they eat, we need to see if, after the Tang, the northern Chinese discarded
the spoon and only used chopsticks because they ate different foods.
Meng Yuanlao recalled that in the city of Kaifeng everyone eating at
a restaurant had all switched to chopsticks as their eating tool; however,
he did not specify what types of food were served at those eateries.
But it seems that at least they were not eating millet, for Lu You
(1126-1200), a contemporary poet and a petty official in South China,
professed that when he ate the grain, he used a spoon. In one of his poems.

^ Meng Yuanlao et al., Dongjing menghualu, Ducheng jisheng, Xihu laoren fanshenglu,
Mengliang lu, Wulin jiushi (Beijing: Zhongguo shangye chubanshe, 1982), 29.

^ Liu X.U, JiuTangshu (Old Tang history) - “Gao Chongwen zi Chengjian” (Biographies of
Gao Chongwen and his son Gao Chengjian), HDWZK, 4052.

Chopsticks: a cultural and culinary history

Lu describes vividly how he slid his spoon smoothly into cooked millet and
scooped it up. Born and raised in Shaoxing, a city in the Yangzi River
Delta, Lu You had to be more accustomed to eating rice than millet. Yet on
occasions when millet was the grain food, Lu turned to the spoon, follow-
ing the traditional etiquette recommended by ancient sages. This shows
that even in the late twelfth century, cooked millet was likely eaten with a
spoon among the Chinese literati.^

Perhaps due to their own consumption of rice, Japanese scholars have
all agreed that the Chinese turned more to chopsticks use in the post-Tang
periods because they ate more rice. Back in the 1950s, Aoki Masaru
(1887-1964), a sinologist, had already argued that the primary reason
for the northern Chinese to discard the spoon and only employ chopsticks
for meals was that rice had spread to North China. In particular, Aoki
pointed out, it was the variety of sinica/japonica rice, which he called the
nenshitsumai (lit. glutinous rice), that grew across China. In other words,
as the rice variety is viscous (not to be confused with the sticky rice used
for making holiday food), the sinica/japonica rice is more integrated after
cooking, enabling one to move it easily in clumps with chopsticks. Citing
Aoki in their work, Mukai and Hashimoto have supported Aoki’s argu-
ment with new evidence that the above conversion occurred around
the fifteenth century. Shu Tassei, another Japanese scholar, also states
that in North China, the custom for the Chinese to turn to chopsticks as
their exclusive eating tool began in the Ming period, or after the four-
teenth century.'’ It is possible that Japanese scholars have drawn on their
own dining experience in Japan, for sinica/japonica rice is the most
consumed rice variety among the Japanese. It has also been a long-
practiced dietary custom for the Japanese to use chopsticks exclusively
for their daily meals. However, if rice consumption did encourage exclu-
sive chopsticks use, the rice did not have to be the sinica/japonica variety.
Like the Japanese, the Vietnamese also mostly use chopsticks as their only
eating tool for daily meals. But in Southeast Asia, due to geographical and
climatic similarity, the indica rice is quite common, especially in Thailand
but in Vietnam too. But regardless of the variety, the Vietnamese can
move cooked rice with only chopsticks.

^ Lu You, Jiannan shigao (Complete collections of Lu You’s poems), juan 6o, ZJGK, 756.
Another possibility is that since he was writing a poem, Lu might have just preferred an
archaic usage, a common practice among Chinese poets. Millet, after all, might not have
even been his daily staple in real life.

^ Mukai 6c Hashimoto, Hashi, 41-44; Shu, Chugoku no Shokubunka, 125.

Using chopsticks: customs, manners and etiquette

Without question, rice gained a much more important status as a
grain food in China after the Tang. During the Song period, observes
E. N. Anderson, “rice became far more important, at last gaining its
modern status as China’s chief grain.” Indeed, Anderson summarizes,
“rice was the miracle crop of Sung (Song).”" The advantage of rice is
that when climate permits, rice fields have a higher yield than that of
other crops. “On the basis of mean grain yield,” states Te-tzu Chang
when writing for The Cambridge World History of Food, “rice crops
produce more food energy and protein supply per hectare than wheat and
maize. Hence, rice can support more people per unit of land than the two
other staples.”*^ Rice also has a number of varieties. The indica variety
mentioned above, for example, generally takes less time to ripen than does
the sinica/japonica variety. Since the sixth century, many varieties of indica
rice had been grown extensively in Southeast Asia, of which the Champa
rice, cultivated in today’s central and southern Vietnam, was especially well
known for its early ripening quality. The Vietnamese called it “hasty rice”
because it could be harvested two or three times a year in semi-tropical
climate zones. ^ In 1012, by the decree of Emperor Zhenzong, the Song
dynasty official introduced Champa rice to Chinese farmers in the south-
eastern littoral regions. Known in Chinese as the xian rice, Champa rice (and
its variations) became widely farmed in the Yangzi River and Pearl River
regions, even though other varieties of indica rice had grown in the same
regions since antiquity. In a word, from the Song dynasty as rice became
more consumed in China than before, the Chinese turned to more rice
varieties than only the sinicaljaponica type suggested by Aoki Masaru.

In Song China, besides the increase in consumption of rice, chopsticks
use expanded also because Chinese cookery entered a new phase of
development. Indeed, argues Michael Ereeman, it was during the Song
period that cooking in China became a cuisine, characterized by the
adoption of new ingredients and new cooking techniques. In his account
of city life in Kaifeng, Meng Yuanlao describes these new culinary develop-
ments in detail. In fact, of all the businesses in the city recorded by Meng,
over half of them were public eateries, including low-priced noodle shops,
noisy teahouses, lively inns and famous restaurants, in addition to a
number of food stands and vendors in the city’s boisterous night

^ Liu, TangSong yinshi wenhuade bijiao yanjiu, 58. Anderson, Food of China,, 65.
^ Chang, “Rice,” Cambridge World History of Food, voL i, 132.

^ Nguyen, Ancient Civilization of Vietnam, 224.

Freeman, “Sung,” Food in Chinese Culture, 143-151.

Chopsticks: a cultural and culinary history

markets. The foods offered at those places were cooked in a great variety of
ways, ranging from various kinds of stews, prepared traditionally but with
new ingredients, to new, innovative stir-fried dishes, displaying the marked
improvement of this relatively new cooking technique. One could well
imagine that to eat all these foods, plus noodles and dumplings, people
naturally turned to chopsticks as the eating utensil, for it was economical
and convenient; they were likely to be provided by the eateries.

Apparently, Kaifeng was not the only city in Song China that had such
an animated and exciting life. When the Song dynasty retreated to the
south, it made Lin’an, or today’s Hangzhou, its capital. The city Lin’an,
according to a contemporaneous account, quickly became a hub of a great
variety of restaurants at which many schools of cuisines competed to
attract customers. That is, the improvement and diversification of
Chinese food culture continued and expanded, despite the regime change.
Not only were southern crops like rice grown in parts of North China;
expanding on the effort already begun in the Tang, northern crops such as
wheat were also planted widely in the south, partly to meet the demand of
the northern Chinese who migrated to the south following the Song
regime. Their dining habits also influenced the southern residents: from
then on, if not earlier, wheat flour foods (e.g. noodles and wonton) became
daily staples for the people in the south, if mostly only for breakfast and
snacks.

After the Mongols established the Yuan dynasty (1271-1368) in China,
such mixing and mingling of culinary traditions persisted. A famous
example is the introduction of “mutton hot pot” (shuanyangrou) into
China proper. The dish had a Mongolian origin but also appealed to the
Chinese, especially those in the north (a topic we will turn to below). The
Yuan dynasty was overthrown by Zhu Yuanzhang (1328-1398), who
founded the Ming dynasty in its ruins in 1368. In his early reign, Zhu
migrated peasants from the south and northwest to the north, in hope of
reviving the agricultural economy in those war-wrecked regions. He also
issued policies to restore and maintain good irrigation systems, which
benefited the growth of all grain crops in general, and rice in particular.
These measures caused southern foods and cuisines to either spread or take
deeper root in the north. After Zhu’s death, his son Zhu Di, or Emperor
Yongle (1360-1424), made Beijing the new capital, which further
strengthened the economic and cultural link between the north and the

Dongjing menghualu.

Ibid., especially Menglianglu and Xihu laoren fanshenglu.

Using chopsticks: customs, manners and etiquette

south. Toward the late Ming, as the government was staffed more and
more by officials from Jiangnan (lit. south of Yangzi, or Yangzi Valley), it
designed policies to cultivate rice in the suburbs of Beijing and other
regions in North China, in addition to transporting it in large quantities
from the south through the Grand Canal. When Song Yingxing (1587-
1666) wrote his Exploitations of the Works of Nature (Tiangong kaiwu),
he estimated that “Nowadays seventy per cent of the people’s staple food is
rice, while wheat and various kinds of millet constitute thirty per cent.”^'*
Concurring with Song, E. N. Anderson states that during the Ming, “rice
became even more important, reaching its modern level of significance as
China’s great staple. At the same time, wheat was spreading in the south,
the flour was becoming an important food.”'^ European missionaries
who went to South China during the Ming confirmed that while “the
principal food of all Chinos [sic] is rice . . . there is also much and very
good wheat, whereof they make very good bread.

Ming China, spanning nearly three centuries, was a prosperous era;
its prosperity is reflected in the many novels appearing in the age. These
novels provide unequivocal evidence that the Ming Chinese only used
chopsticks for their meals, as observed by Yun Kuk-Hyong at the begin-
ning of the chapter. The novels by Eeng Menglong (1574-1646), a
prolific writer of the time, recorded multiple and useful examples. Feng
was interested in portraying the life of the common people, or the towns-
people living in urban areas in coastal China. His Stories to Awaken the
World (Xingshi hengyan), for instance, depicts an occasion at which Qin
Chong, a candidate en route to the imperial examination, was received
warmly by a local family. Qin was offered rice and wine, together with a
pair of chopsticks and a wine cup - the only two utensils given to him.
He used the chopsticks to eat the rice, which was described as “snow
white,” and took a little sip of the wine in the cup. Another character in
the novel, Wu Ya’nei, or Young Master Wu, was a big eater. On one
occasion, as the story depicts, Wu was only given two bowls of rice.
“Holding his chopsticks,” Feng writes, “he quickly shoveled them down.

Yin Yongwen, MingQing yinshi yanjiu (Studies of food and drink in the Ming and Qing
dynasties) (Taipei: Hongye wenhua shiye youxian gongsi, 1997), 5-6.

Song Yingxing (Sung Ying-hsing), T’ien-kung k’ai-wu: Chinese Technology in the
Seventeenth Century^ trans. E-tu Zen Sun and Shiou-chuan Sun (University Park:
Pennsylvania State University Press, 1966), 4.

Anderson, Food o/^C^m.3, 80.

See the writings of Martin de Rada and Caspar da Cruz in Boxer, South China in the
Sixteenth Century^ 2.87, 13 1.

lOO

Chopsticks: a cultural and culinary history

with only two or three scoops,” still appearing quite unsatisfied/^ A
native of Suzhou, a major city in Jiangnan where rice was the grain staple,
Feng proved that it had been customary for the people to transfer rice
from bowls to their mouths with a pair of chopsticks.

Ming novels also show that rice was consumed quite commonly in
North China. The Plum in the Golden Vase (Jinpingmei), a well-known
erotic novel written anonymously in the late sixteenth century, is a prime
example. The story depicted in the novel was supposed to have taken
place in Shandong, North China. The novel hence illustrated how food
habits and dietary customs had changed among the northern Chinese in
the period. The protagonists of The Plum in the Golden Vase are a rich
merchant named Ximen Qing and his concubines and lovers. Li Ping’er
was one of Ximen’s concubines who, suffered an untimely death. Upon
her departure, Ximen Qing went to Li Ping’er’s quarter. Saddened and
sobbing, Li’s servants served Ximen with several dishes on the dining
table. To console them, Ximen “raised his chopsticks from the table and
said: ‘Please eat some rice,’ as though Li were still alive. But his consola-
tion gesture only made them cry more.”^* Clearly, not only did the
northern Chinese like Ximen Qing eat rice, they also used chopsticks to
convey the grain.

As rice was grown and consumed in North China, a new term, damifan
(lit. big rice), appeared in Ming texts. As a result, cooked millet became
called xiaomifati (lit. small rice); both are still in popular parlance among
the northern Chinese today because they still consume them as daily
grains. These neologisms appeared because in terms of grain size, rice is
undoubtedly larger than millet, even its huangliang variety. The Plum in
the Golden Vase frequently mentions how people cooked rice fan, and
quotes such aphorisms as “[whoever] put in the rice (mi - uncooked rice)
first, would eat the fan first too.”^^ Yet interestingly, the fan described
in the novel was often called tang fan, literarily meaning “rice in hot water
or soup.” This term reveals that in cooking rice, the northern Chinese
perhaps still liked to make it a gruel or porridge, just as they would if it
were millet. Besides rice, the people in The Plum in the Golden Vase also
ate other grains. To cultivate his love affairs, Ximen Qing threw many
parties, at which a variety of foods was served. Among those made of grain

Feng Menglong, Xingshi hengyan, juan 3 and juan 28, ZJGK, 35, 414.

Xiaoxiaosheng, 13, ZJGK, 515.

'^'^Xian xiami, xian chifan” which appears four times in Jinpingmei in juan 4, juan i^,juan
18, ZJGK, 135, 664, 725, 729.

Using chopsticks: customs, manners and etiquette

lOI

cereals were buns, pancakes, noodles and rice, demonstrating a more
diverse food system than that in Jiangnan. But regardless of the variety
and whether the food appeared solid or soft, Ximen and his friends only
used chopsticks, in addition to a cup for drinking either wine or tea,
without the presence of a spoon. In fact, the eating scenes described in
the novel suggest that by this time this combination (a pair of chopsticks
and a tea/wine cup) of eating tools had replaced the earlier spoon and
chopsticks combination. “ Caspar da Cruz, a Jesuit missionary who
visited the Ming, also wrote that a “small porcelain cup” was provided
for the diners to hold wine, without mentioning the spoon.

By using chopsticks to eat, again shown in these Ming novels, people sat
around a dining table and placed cooked dishes on it for everyone to share.
In his journal, Ch’oe Pu, the Korean mandarin, also recalls that when he
crisscrossed China, he saw the Chinese use only chopsticks to eat foods at a
common table. The Europeans who went to China in the period made a
similar observation:

The Chinas [Chinese] are great eaters and they use many dishes. They eat at one
table fish and flesh, and the base people dress it sometimes all together. The dishes
which are to be eaten at one table, are set all together on the board [table?], that
every one may eat which he liketh best.^^

This has become a typical eating scene in China and beyond in the chop-
sticks cultural sphere. But it marked a contrast to the dietary custom of
the earlier periods, such as that of Han and Tang China. For Han stone
carvings and mural paintings show that the Chinese dined on the floor,
not on a chair nor at a table, and the food was either placed on a mat or
on a short-legged tray (the tray was called shi’an, appearing first in a Han
text) (Plate 5).^“* In modern Chinese, “banquet” is still referred to as
yanxi, or “dining on the mat,” indicating the residual influence of
the ancient custom. This dietary tradition seems to have continued
more or less through the Tang. Meanwhile, some Tang paintings show
that people had begun to sit on a bench and eat food on a table. But it
seems that they still had food served to them in their individual bowls and
plates (Plate ii).

See JinpingmeiJuan 12, ZJGK, 443. Therewere more eating occasions described through-
out the novel where wine cups and chopsticks were provided instead of spoons.

Boxer, South China in the Sixteenth Century^ 142. Ch’oe Pu’s Diary, 157.
da Cruz, Boxer, South China in the Sixteenth Century, 14 1.

Huan Kuan, Yantie lun (Debates on salt and iron), juan 5, ZJGK, 31.

102

Chopsticks: a cultural and culinary history

However, during the post-Tang periods, together with the ascent of
chopsticks as an eating tool, a new dining habit emerged in China;
diners began sitting on chairs around a table, on which food dishes
were placed for everyone to sample. Chinese food scholars call this
new dining style heshizhi (communal eating style), as opposed to the
fenshizhi (individual eating style) of the earlier periods (Plate 12). Had
the emergence of the communal eating style also encouraged the Chinese
to turn to increased chopsticks use rather than to the spoon? Liu Yun
believes it did, and cites the evidence that the chopsticks from the Ming
period tended to be a bit longer - averaging over 25 cm - than their
earlier counterparts. The increased length, observes Liu, was for diners
to pinch and pick up the food contents at the middle of the table. (It is
worth mentioning here that in Chongqing, where hot pot is the local
delicacy, restaurants that serve hot pot provide their customers with
longer chopsticks, in order to facilitate the food sharing.) By compar-
ison, as communal eating is uncommon in Japan, Japanese chopsticks
are shorter (18-20 cm), a point that lends support to Liu’s observation.
The Japanese prefer eating in the so-called meimeizen (lit. one meal per
person) style, with food items pre-served to their individual plates and
bowls.

It was practical for the Japanese, as well as the early Chinese, to eat their
meals individually, rather than communally, because they dined on the
floor (e.g. sitting on the tatami as the Japanese customarily did). It made
sense for food to be served to them - it would be too awkward and
cumbersome for anyone to crawl on the floor to get the food for them-
selves. The development of the communal eating style, therefore, was
predicated on the use of chairs and tables, especially the former. Chairs
were not found in ancient China; they were introduced to China by the
nomads, or the huren, in the Han dynasty. When Emperor Ling of the Han
demanded that everything be hu, huchuang, or '"hu seat,” was included.
The seat was possibly made of animal skins and supported by wooden legs.
It was light and foldable, resembling an outdoor chair today. It might
have evolved from the saddle used by the nomads in horse riding. In the
post-Han period, according to a fourth-century text, the hu seat came to
be adopted by the Chinese, especially among the rich.^® As it became
more accepted, huchuang changed to jiaochuang, dropping the hu prefix;
jiaochuang instead described how the sitter crossed their legs in the seat. The

Liu, Zhongguo zhu wenhuashi, 327.

Gan Bao, Soushenji (In search of the supernatural), juan 7, ZJGK, 30.

Using chopsticks: customs, manners and etiquette

103

word chuang, however, still suggests that it was less a chair than a bench,
without the back. And benches are indeed shown in Tang paintings.

Once the stool height was raised and a back attached, then the bench
became a chair. The Chinese equivalent of the chair is yizi, which first
appeared in the Tang.^^ The famous Night Revels of Han Xizai (Han Xizai
yeyantu; Plate 13), a painting from the tenth century, not long after the
Tang’s fall, offers a glimpse of what chairs were like in Tang and post-Tang
China. The seat was high enough for a sitter to extend his legs straight
down and, with a back, the sitter could also rest his body. That is, the
chair had become like a chair one uses today. When Han Xizai (902-970),
a respected scholar-official at the time who refused to serve in government,
entertained his guests, as the painting depicts, he gave them several dishes
on the rectangular table in front of them, which was not much higher than
the chair on which he and his guests were sitting. It looked more like a
coffee table in modern times. While chopsticks and wine cups were on the
table, the painting shows that Han and his friends were eating together, but
not eating communally as in the later periods.

But communal eating did begin to take place, first among family mem-
bers, in the following periods. A mural painting (Plate 14) found in a Song
tomb in Hebei, near Beijing, shows a middle-aged couple sitting across
from each other, with foods, chopsticks and wine cups on a table, appa-
rently having a family dinner together. The square-shaped table in the
painting is considerably higher than the one in the Night Revels of Han
Xizaid'^ Food scholars in China believe that communal eating started as
early as the Song period, or from the twelfth century onward, as a result of
the marked culinary advances of the period. “Communal eating began to
be widely adopted in Song society,” Zhao Rongguang states, “because
food dishes on the table became multiplied and diversified. People
desired to sample and share these dishes together at a meal, making
communal dining a logical choice. The individual eating style became
obsolete. That people in the Song had shared food together at one
sitting is also described in novels, such as in the famous Water Margin

Wu Jing, Zhen’guan zhengyao (Essentials about politics in the Zhen’guan reign), juan i6,
ZJGK, 156.

See www.baike.com/wiki/^ f which cites a Tang record that used yizi. The next appear-
ance of yizi is in Y uchi Wo’s Zhongchao gushi (Stories of the Tang dynasty), written in the
tenth century, ZJGK, 6.

Tomb mural of Mr. Zhao and his wife eating at a table, served by their daughter and
servants, c. 1099. Tomb no. i, Yuxian, Henan Province.

Zhao Rongguang, Zhongguo yinshi wenhua gailun, 219.

104

Chopsticks: a cultural and culinary history

(Shuihu zhuan). Song Jiang, the hero in the novel who organized a revolt
against the Song dynasty in the twelfth century, is depicted often having
meals and drinks with his friends while sitting together at a big table. But
the novel was written in the fourteenth century, or in the early Ming; it thus
might have projected the Ming dining style into the earlier Song period.

The adoption of communal eating had to be a gradual process in
Chinese society. But apparently by the Ming it had become rather com-
mon. As the Ming exercised some control in Vietnam, it was likely that the
Vietnamese also adopted communal dining during the period.^ ^ To facil-
itate the need for sharing of dishes, the table size, too, became bigger from
the Ming onward. The dining tables mentioned in such Ming novels as The
Plum in the Golden Vase were of two types - kangzhuo, or “bed-stove
table,” and baxianzhuo, or “eight-immortal table.” Both terms only began
to appear in Ming texts, not earlier. (Square tables, or fangzhuo, had
appeared in the Song, but they were not mainly used for dining.^^) The
bed-stove table, as its name suggests, is a table for putting on a platform
bed, also called a bed-stove. Built with bricks or fired clay, the bed-stove -
kang in Chinese and nahan in Manchu - channels the heat of the cooking
fire into the bedroom to keep it warm in the winter. Occupying usually two
thirds of a room, the platform (approximately z x i.8 m) is not only for
sleeping at night but also for other activities, such as dining, during the day.
In other words, the bed-stove table, which is usually square-shaped but
could also be rectangular, is placed at the center of the platform in the
daytime for the family to eat their daily meals or entertain their guests; it is
then moved to the side and leaned against the wall at night when the family
goes to sleep. The platform bed and the table remain in use among the
Chinese, Koreans and Manchus living in the north today. For several diners
to eat at the bed-stove table, most of them have to sit around it and the rest
on the benches next to the bed (Plate 15). This was exactly how Ximen Qing
and his women did it, according to The Plum in the Golden Vased'^

In his TangSong yinshi wenhuade bijiao yanjiu^ Liu Pubing argues that communal eating
began in Song China, though he cites Water Margin as evidence, which was a Ming novel.
313-322.

As quoted in Chapter 4, Nguyen describes his country’s eating customs as follows: “The
dishes are common for all, one uses one’s chopsticks to take foodstuffs which are prepared
and cut into small pieces.” Ancient Civilization of Vietnam^ 212.

Chen Kui, NanSong guangelu (Records of Southern Song archives and history-offices),
ZJGK, 27.

Kangzhuo appears in Jinpingmei in juan 4, 135, juan 5, 181, juan 6, 223, juan 15, 604,
juan 18, 717, and juan 18, 751; all pages are in ZJGK.

Using chopsticks: customs, manners and etiquette

105

In the Ming novel, Ximen Qing also used eight-immortal tables to
entertain his guests, especially when he was hosting a big party. As its
name indicates, the eight-immortal table is larger than the bed-stove table.
Approximately r.z x r.z m, it is big enough for eight people to sit rather
comfortably around it and have a meal together. And the table seems more
common in South China, where the platform bed was absent, than it was in
the north. Feng Menglong’s Stories to Awaken the World, for instance,
never mentions the bed-stove table. When he describes how Qin Chong
was welcomed with a meal, as cited above, Feng points out that the foods,
fruits and confections were presented to Qin on an eight-immortal table for
him to savor and enjoy. Indeed, whenever eating is described in the novel,
the eight-immortal table is always used, suggesting its broad acceptance in
South China.

Wang Mingsheng (r72z-ry97), a scholar of the Qing dynasty (r644~
r 9 r r ), traced the evolution of dining tables in China, and the origin of the
eight-immortal table in particular, as follows:

The table used today had the same origin as huchuang [hu seat]. Ancient people
sat on the floor, behind a mat. So they did not use a chair. If they used a table, or ji
)L, it was rather small, as described in the Classic of History and the Classic of
Odes. By contrast, the table we use today is quite big. In common parlance, it is
called the table of eight immortals, for it could have eight people eating together at a
sitting. Though similar in use, today’s table is quite different from the table of
ancient times.

Wang’s remarks showed that during his time, the eight-immortal table was
the most common dining table. The table has actually retained its popular-
ity more or less to this day in many parts of China. A major reason for its
persistent attraction seems to be its big size, enabling more to sit around it
and more food dishes to be presented. Beginning in the Ming but continu-
ing through the Qing, the population in China experienced a steady
growth, rising roughly from less than 100 million in the fifteenth century
to over 300 million in the mid-eighteenth century. In ryrz when Emperor
Kangxi (1654-2722) removed the poll tax, it undoubtedly helped to
increase the family size, making the table almost indispensable for many
enlarged households. But the increase had already begun in the Ming,
partly because of the introduction of the “New World crops” (maize.

Baxianzhuo appears six times in Jinpingmei.

Feng, Xingshi hengyan^ juan 3, ZJGK, 35.

Wang Mingsheng, Shiqishi shangque {Critiques of seventeen histories) (Shanghai:
Shanghai shudian chubanshe, 2005), juan 24, 171-172.

io6

Chopsticks: a cultural and culinary history

sweet potatoes, potatoes, etc.) from the Americas to China, which helped
reduce mortality among the poor. As more cheap labor became available
while the gap between the rich and poor remained, the rich Chinese
pursued luxury, including haute cuisine and other “superfluous things.”
The enlarged body of literature of connoisseurship of the period docu-
mented the development of this “luxury culture.” The popularity of the
eight-immortal table was material evidence, confirming the extent of such
a culture in Chinese society.

The adoption of tables and chairs, therefore, was correlated to the
propagation of communal dining among the Chinese; the latter enabled
diners to taste and try several dishes at one sitting. The flexibility of chop-
sticks enhances such a process, especially if the dishes are stir-fried or
stewed because the food items have been cut into small pieces. Yet people
could also share several food contents in one dish. “Mutton hot pot”
(shuanyangrou), a popular hot pot mentioned above, is a typical example.
Eating mutton hot pot has made chopsticks indispensable, for it requires
one to cook the food items in the simmering pot at the center of the table.
The nimbleness of chopsticks allows one to choose the thinly sliced meat
and chopped vegetables in a desired portion and load them in the pot.
Once the meat is ready - having swished it in the hot broth - it is lifted up
by the chopsticks and dipped first into the sauces before being finally
delivered to one’s mouth. In brief, chopsticks are essential in eating a hot
pot. By contrast, it is hard to use a spoon for the above tasks, for the food
items can slip off and fall from it.

Chinese legend attributes the invention of mutton hot pot to Kublai
Khan (121 5-1294), the grandson of Genghis Khan and founder of the
Yuan dynasty in China. It is said that while campaigning in China, Kublai
once had a craving for mutton stew, common in Mongolian cookery. As
the chef was making it, his army came under attack. To save time, the chef
sliced the mutton into thin pieces and threw the slices in the boiling water
for fast cooking. He then spread salt and condiments on them. Kublai
quickly gobbled them all up and praised the taste. To many Chinese,
mutton hot pot might be the quintessential hot pot. But the hot pot also

“Luxury culture” in the Ming is identified by Jack Goody in his “The Origin of Chinese
Food Culture,” Di 6 jie Zhongguo yinshi wenhua xueshu yantaohui lunwenji {Proceedings
of the 6th symposium of Chinese food and drink culture) (Taipei: Zhongguo yinshi
wenhua jijinhui, 2003), 2-4. Also Craig Clunas, Superfluous Things: Material Culture
and Social Status in Early Modern China (Urbana: University oflllinois Press, 1991); and
Timothy Brook, The Confusions of Pleasure: Commerce and Culture in Ming China
(Berkeley: University of California Press, 1998).

Using chopsticks: customs, manners and etiquette 107

resembles a stew, which has been a common dish throughout Asia for
centuries. In a recipe book written by Lin Hong in the twelfth century, for
example, the author recalls that once he went to Mt. Wuyi, located in
Southeast China, to visit a recluse on a snowy day. He was treated with
rabbit meat, which, according to his description, was cooked the same way
mutton hot pot was made: the meat was first sliced thinly then loaded into
a boiling broth. Lin also records that he, along with other guests, was
asked to use chopsticks to load the meat into the broth. After cooking the
meat in the broth for a little while, they used chopsticks to pick up the meat
and dipped it in sauces before delivering it to their mouths. This too is the
way mutton hot pot is usually eaten nowadays. In fact, Lin points out that
besides rabbit, people also cooked pork and mutton the same way - the
cold weather at the top of the mountains might have helped them to
prepare the meat this way. He also mentions that several years later, he
saw restaurants in Lin’an (Hangzhou) adopting the same cooking method,
though he did not specify what meat was used.^®’

The way mutton hot pot, or any hot pot in general, is cooked and its
main food ingredient (lamb and mutton) is prepared suggests that it must
have been more popular among the nomadic peoples. Compared with the
people in the south, people in the north, the nomads in particular, con-
sumed more animal meat, be it lamb, pork or beef. They also preferred to
eat food hot, which is essentially how a hot pot is usually eaten; the diners
pick the food from the hot broth right after it is cooked and deliver it to
their mouths. One essential step in cooking the hot pot is to first freeze the
meat so that it can be sliced very thinly. After being loaded into the pot,
the cold meat will then hiss in the boiling broth and quickly roll up. Before
the invention of refrigerators, it would have been hard to freeze the meat
in the temperate and subtropical south. After founding the Qing dynasty, it
was the Manchus who made mutton hot pot a more popular dish in North
China. Although they themselves preferred pork to lamb, the Manchu
court turned to the dish on occasion. Over time, mutton hot pot also
found acceptance among city residents in Beijing and other neighboring
regions.

Besides promoting mutton hot pot, the Manchus were also credited
with creating their own hot pot, which used sliced pork - their favorite
meat - and Chinese cabbage, among other things. Koreans are also fond of
hot pot dishes, or sinseollo and jjigae. The former is more similar to a

Lin Hong, Shanjia qinggong {Simple foods at mountains) (Beijing: Zhongguo shangye
chubanshe, 1985), 48.

io8

Chopsticks: a cultural and culinary history

Chinese hot pot in that the broth is boiled in the middle of the table,
whereas the latter resembles more a thick soup, often cooked beforehand.
Hot pot, or nabemono (lit. foodstuffs [cooked] in a pot), is also popular
among the Japanese. There are two kinds as well. One is shabu shabu, or
“swish swish,” which is cooked similarly to mutton hot pot and other hot
pots from the Asian mainland. The other is sukiyaki, which seems more
Japanese but may have some Portuguese or European influences. As the
chief ingredient of these two particular varieties of hot pot is sliced beef or
other meat, both the shabu shabu and sukiyaki register modern influences
in Japanese cuisine, as the Japanese consumed little animal meat before the
nineteenth century. But cooking foods (fish, kelp, vegetables, mushrooms,
tofu, etc.) in a pot to make a stew or a hearty soup (as nabemono) must
have had a long history in Japan, as boiling is a common cooking method
there and around the world.

After chopsticks gained their advantage over the spoon in eating
communal meals, and hot pots in particular, their position on the table
was also adjusted. As shown in Tang mural paintings, the Chinese placed
their chopsticks horizontally on the table. But in Ming paintings, chop-
sticks were already positioned vertically, pointing in the direction of
the food dishes at the middle of the table, as if to ready them for
transportation (Plate i8). This placement has become most common
nowadays in China, Korea and Vietnam, where communal eating has
been adopted to a varying degree. By comparison, having retained the
custom of eating meals individually, the Japanese have continued to place
their chopsticks horizontally on the table, such as in a bento box. When
they use the utensil to lift and deliver the food in front of them to their
mouths, this movement is mostly horizontal, moving from right to left as
tradition demands one use one’s right hand to hold chopsticks. But
interestingly, when eating shabu shabu and/or sukiyaki, the Japanese
sometimes also put and leave chopsticks vertically, so they face the
ingredients at the center of the table.

If the Chinese in the Ming began to place chopsticks vertically on the table,
this might also be because their emperor demanded it. A Ming historical text
records that after Zhu Yuanzhang founded the Ming, he invited some noted
literati to a banquet at his court. After the banquet, one of them, named Tang
Su, raised his chopsticks with both of his hands, thanking the Emperor.
Surprised by his gesture, Zhu asked him what kind of table manners this
was. Tang answered that this was what he had learned as a child in his
hometown. Instead of appreciating Tang’s politeness, Zhu scolded, “How
could you treat me, the Son of Heaven, with vulgar village manners!” Tang

Using chopsticks: customs, manners and etiquette 109

was dismissed and exiled as punishment."^” In hindsight, Tang was perhaps
not at fault, for what he did might have drawn on a recommended dining
tradition in China before that time. (Chapter 4 has mentioned that this
gesture might have originated in Buddhist temples and the Japanese still do
it today, though they tend to do it before a meal, rather than after.)
However, the Ming Emperor was annoyed by it, perhaps because he had
grown up as a poor peasant child and was too embarrassed to admit that
he was ignorant of older traditions.

This episode indicates that as communal eating came to be widely
practiced in Chinese society, chopsticks etiquette and table manners also
changed as a result. But outside China, some of the traditional customs
remained, and hence are preserved well to this day. The fact that by social
norms modern-day Koreans still use both spoons and chopsticks as an
inseparable set to convey meals is a good example. In Korea today, it is
common for the two utensils to be sold together at a store, which could
well surprise other Asians in the chopsticks cultural sphere. That is, just
as Ch’oe Pu, Yun Kuk-Hyong and other Koreans who went to Ming
China were shocked that the Chinese no longer used a spoon in convey-
ing grain food, a Chinese person visiting Korea today might be equally
surprised by the fact that s/he cannot purchase a pair of chopsticks
without also buying a spoon! The Korean case is a unique one in the
chopsticks cultural sphere.

That the Japanese have generally continued the meimeizen (one meal
per person) style in eating is another example. To some degree, the bento
box meal, ubiquitous in Japanese society today, especially at lunch time, is
emblematic of how successfully the Japanese have upheld the dietary
custom of olden days. In ancient China, foods in a tray were called shan
(zen in Japanese), so the word shanizen refers to a meal. Thus, meimeizen
means that everyone has one’s own food tray. Along with the use of
individual food trays come individualized utensils; in Japanese, a pair of
chopsticks is most commonly called ichizen — 1§, suggesting that one pair
of chopsticks goes in one meal tray. Over time, the food tray became the
food box, or bento box, for portability. The making of a bento box meal
reflects Japanese culinary influences. For instance, as items are placed into
various compartments in the box, the bento box meal pays attention to the
visual presentation of the food, a tradition in Japanese cuisine. Since the meal
is meant to be portable, the bento box is small enough to be held in one hand,
which means that the chopsticks placed in the box are also short, another

Cited in Lan, Kuaizi, buzhishi kuaizi, 82.

Chopsticks: a cultural and culinary history

Japanese characteristic since most chopsticks used in Japan are shorter
than their counterparts elsewhere (Plate Last but not least, continu-
ing the meimeizen tradition, the bento box meal is individually packaged.
From the fourteenth century, this dining style has become distinctly
Japanese, for the Chinese, the Vietnamese and Koreans all have more or
less adopted communal eating. By comparison, many Japanese families still
serve cooked dishes on individual plates or bowls; it is frowned upon for
anyone to dig and pick up foodstuffs with their chopsticks from a common
dish before serving. Called jikabashi (lit. direct chopsticks), using chopsticks
this way is unacceptable for many Japanese, particularly if they are dining
with guests at a public restaurant. Instead, the Japanese are expected to use
toribashi, or serving/community chopsticks, to transfer the food contents
from common dishes to their own plates or bowls.

Communal eating seems also connected to the communal use of chop-
sticks. Outside Japan, it is normal to see a family sharing the use of utensils;
before a meal, each member randomly picks up a pair of chopsticks or a
spoon in a container or in a drawer. But in Japan, this is more a practice for
eating at a restaurant (where one finds a bunch of chopsticks in a receptacle
on the dining table) than in a household. Members of a Japanese family tend
to have their own chopsticks and other utensils (spoons and bowls, etc.) for
daily meals. And the shape, quality and length of chopsticks can differ
markedly among members of a family, reflecting the position and gender
of their users in the family. For instance, the chopsticks used by adults tend
to be of better quality than those used by children, based on the assumption
that children are not as careful with the utensil. There is also a gender differ-
ence: the utensils for a female member of the family tend to be shorter and
smaller, since women’s hands are generally smaller. But these could be more
colorful and more highly decorated than those for a male family member, as
shown by the characteristics of miotobashi - “husband-wife chopsticks”
(Plate zi). To a varying degree, all these practices, too, exist in societies

Mukai 6c Hashimoto, Hashi, 205-208; and Harada Nobuo, Riben liaoli de shehuishi:
heshi yu Riben wenhua (A social history of Japanese cuisine: on Japanese food and
Japanese culture), trans. Liu Yang (Hong Kong: Sanlian shudian, 2011), 63-68. Also,
Xu, Riben yinshi wenhua^ 85-88. Several Chinese scholars have also pointed out that the
Japanese use shorter chopsticks because of their individual dining custom. See Lii Lin,
"ZhongRi kuaizhu lishi yu wenhua zhi tantao” (Explorations of the chopsticks’ history
and culture in China and Japan), Keji xinxi (Science and technology information),
10 (2008), 1 1 5-1 17; Li Qingxiang, “Riben de zhu yu wenhua: jianyu Zhongguo kuaizi
wenhua bijiao” (Chopsticks and chopsticks culture in Japan: a comparison with Chinese
chopsticks culture), Jiefangjun waiguoyu xueyuan xuebao (Journal of PLA University of
Foreign Languages), 32:5 (Spring 2009), 94-97.

Using chopsticks: customs, manners and etiquette iii

outside Japan - it is likely that a senior member in a family will have his/her
special utensil, chopsticks or otherwise, in China, Korea and Vietnam. But
it is uncommon, or less common, for each and every member of the family
to have their individual eating tools.

Although invented in Japan, serving chopsticks, or toribashi, have also
become increasingly popular with to Koreans, the Chinese and, more
recently, the Vietnamese, on social and formal occasions rather than in a
family situation. But even if employing a pair of serving chopsticks is not as
common as in Japan, it is often observed among the Chinese and the
Vietnamese that when a host wants to serve foodstuffs to a guest’s plate to
show their hospitality, they will reverse their chopsticks and use the end
not touched by their mouth to complete the task. Indeed, as discussed in
Chapter 2, how to carry food neatly without affecting others’ appetite was a
constant concern, already receiving ample attention in ancient China, as
demonstrated by many detailed instructions given by the Classic of Rites. In
the chopsticks cultural sphere, as the utensil gained increasing importance in
conveying food, there developed several unwritten yet generally accepted
rules of etiquette, including but not limited to the following:

(1) Chopsticks are not used to make a noise (especially in the mouth),
to draw attention, or to gesticulate. Playing with chopsticks is
considered bad mannered, even vulgar.

(2) Chopsticks should not be used to dig around or mine for food in the
dishes, looking for a particular morsel.

(3 ) Chopsticks are not used to move bowls or plates.

(4) Chopsticks are not used to toy with one’s food or with communal
dishes.

(5) Chopsticks are not used to impale food, save in rare instances.
Exceptions include tearing large food items asunder, such as fish,
vegetables and kimchi. In informal use, small, difficult-to-pick-up
items such as cherry tomatoes or fishballs may be speared, but this
use might be frowned upon.

(6) Chopsticks should not be left standing vertically in a bowl of rice or
other food. Any pair of stick-like objects pointing upward resem-
bles the incense sticks that some Asians use as offerings to deceased
family members; certain funerary rites designate offerings of food
to the dead using standing chopsticks."*^

These guidelines are provided, with some revision, by the “chopsticks” entry on Wikipedia
(English), accessed on August 15, 2012. I cite these guidelines because they are, presum-
ably, most accessed among peoples around the world today.

II2

Chopsticks: a cultural and culinary history

This not-to-do list addresses concerns in three categories. First and
foremost is to prevent any messy and unpleasant dining behavior, as it
spoils the appetite as well as the food of others. These rules are cross-
cultural, comparable to the utensil etiquette in other cultures outside Asia.
The second are directions specific to chopsticks use; namely, how to
employ the instrument properly in transporting food, not disturbing and
offending others. This could be at times challenging when one shares food
with others at a table, using either chopsticks or a spoon or both, hence
deserving more discussion below. And the third are relevant cultural and
religious issues and meanings involved in using the utensil, a topic to be
treated in the next chapter.

Specifically, some terms in the Japanese language describe several com-
mon taboos in chopsticks use, frowned upon by most users across Asia, in
spite of the noted differences in their dietary practices and traditions.
For instance, it is a faux pas for anyone to hold chopsticks stuck with rice
grains or other food remains, or to use chopsticks to lift food that have either
droped or driped onto the table. The latter is called namidahashi or “tearing
chopsticks,” in Japanese. In addition, there are such descriptions
as saguribashi - probing chopsticks, mayoibashi - lost chopsticks, and
utsuribashi - transporting chopsticks. Saguribashi refers to the act of using
one’s chopsticks to dig or mine for food, rather than grasping a particular
morsel swiftly and decisively. Mayoibashi describes how one points one’s
chopsticks at different dishes as though one cannot decide which to eat,
whereas utsuribashi refers to transporting food items from one pair of
chopsticks to another, without first putting them down in a bowl or plate.
The Japanese also frown upon those who keep chopsticks in the mouth for a
long time and make a noise. Such behavior is called neburibashi - licking
chopsticks. With minor variations, these characterizations also exist in the
Chinese language.'*^

To ensure that one avoids all these impolite acts while using chop-
sticks, it is generally required that one first learn to hold the utensil
correctly and properly. Over the centuries, chopsticks users have indeed
come up with one effective way of using the implement, accepted and
practiced almost universally across the chopsticks cultural sphere. A
brief description of this method is already given in the Introduction.
Since nowadays children often fail to learn the correct method at home
when growing up, some elementary schools in South Korea have gone as far
as to offer drill lessons to teach the children how to apply the utensil in

Li, “Riben de zhu yu wenhua: jianyu Zhongguo kuaizi wenhua bijiao.

Using chopsticks: customs, manners and etiquette 113

conveying a meal. In order to encourage chopsticks use among children, an
annual chopsticks festival (August 4) was created in Japan in 1980, which
was introduced initially by some local governments but now has spread to
many parts of the country."^'* The Japanese also designed and made train-
ing chopsticks for children, which are connected at the top part with a
proper space in-between. The upper chopstick also has rings in which
users put their index and middle fingers so that they can hold both sticks
correctly for effective use (Plate 23).

Such efforts to continue the traditional method of chopsticks use are
made because experience has shown and proven that in order for the two
sticks to grasp a food item firmly, it is best that one keep a certain space
between them and only use the upper stick to make the pincer movement.
This is why, as exemplified by the Japanese training chopsticks, the upper
stick has two rings for one to insert the index and middle fingers for making
the stick move, whereas the lower stick has none, since it is to be rested
securely in the hand. All this is to address the need to clutch and carry a food
item swiftly and adroitly, but avoid touching other items as much as
possible, nor to let items drop or drip on the table. “All rules of table
manners,” wrote Emily Post, author of the popular Etiquette (1922), “are
made to avoid ugliness; to let anyone see what you have in your mouth is
repulsive; to make a noise is to suggest an animal; to make a mess is
disgusting. ”45 That is, table manners were developed, primarily, to create
and maintain a neat and pleasant eating environment. This seems a univer-
sal concern.

Take the “tearing chopsticks” as an example. This conduct, caused
either by sloppiness or by their lack of skill in using the utensil, becomes
odious and even offensive in the chopsticks cultural sphere because it
looks messy, unclean and unpleasant, ruining the eating environment.
Yet the way to prevent it has varied from place to place. In China and
Vietnam, diners are either encouraged or required to transfer, using
chopsticks as they generally do, food contents from the common dishes
first to their own bowls before delivering them to their mouths. In so
doing, they can at times lift and move their bowls closer to the dishes from
where the foodstuffs are being transferred. As the travel distance is shorter, it
decreases the chance of food dropping or dripping from the chopsticks

N. A., “Hanguo kaishe kuaizike” {Koreans teaching chopsticks in schools), Hebei shenji
(Hebei audit), 12 (195)5). About the chopsticks festival in Japan, see www.subject-knowl
edge.us/Wikipedia-9 60 1 5 8-Japanese-chopsticks-Festival.html.

Quoted in Giblin, From Hand to Mouth, 64.

1 14 Chopsticks: a cultural and culinary history

into the dishes or onto the table. By comparison, it is frowned upon in
Korea to raise the rice bowl from the table. In order to avert “tearing
chopsticks,” Koreans apply the spoon, instead of chopsticks, in carrying
any dripping food. Koreans are taught to use a spoon to transport rice
for the same reason. For if the rice bowl is not to be picked up from the
table, when one uses chopsticks to transport rice from the table directly
to the mouth one tends to drop grains along the way. Thus, it is seen in
some Korean families that someone moves rice from the rice bowl first
to a soupy dish and then moves the second bowl closer to the mouth,
using a spoon to eat both in a mixed form. This practice, which is
informal, might suggest that Koreans remain accustomed to eating
grain starch in a soupy form, explaining their tendency to use the
spoon for its transportation.

Koreans do not raise the rice bowl from the table and hold it in their
hands, for such behavior is associated with begging, as beggars tend to do
that while asking for food. To prevent rice grains falling in the process of
delivery, it is acceptable for Koreans to lower their heads when eating a
meal. The idea is to shorten the distance from the bowl or plate to the
mouth. But the Chinese tradition is generally against lowering one’s head
in eating food, for doing so reminds one of pigs eating. Instead, while
keeping their backs straight, the Chinese lift the rice bowl from the table
and use chopsticks to push rice into the mouth, as do the Vietnamese and
Japanese. The idea however is the same - to cut down the distance for
which the food item is carried by chopsticks, lest it drop or drip, or make a
“tearing chopsticks” scene. Since the Japanese, the Vietnamese and the
Chinese tend to only use chopsticks to transport both grain and nongrain
foods in their day-to-day life, it is practical for them to lift their bowls to
their mouths in order to avoid any dropping incidents and maintain a neat
eating style. On occasions when a spoon is also used to eat a food, such as a
soup noodle (e.g. lamian/ramen), one can use both the spoon and the
chopsticks simultaneously. But in Korea, while the two utensils are always
paired together, one is only allowed to use one of them at a time. Custom
demands that one hold either the spoon or the chopsticks in one hand
(usually the right per tradition), but not the two of them in both hands to
carry both grain and nongrain foods simultaneously.

“One is what one eats,” as a common adage goes. Perhaps one is also
how one eats. Table manners are created for all diners at one sitting to
enjoy the food pleasantly, not being disturbed or disgusted by unusual or
unruly behaviors. For an individual, to abide by the accepted dining
custom usually means to keep up one’s appearance - earning respect for

Using chopsticks: customs, manners and etiquette 115

showing politeness or not being looked down upon by others. The
Chinese character for “eating” - chi - is the word “to beg” plus the
mouth radical, which literally means “the mouth that begs.” But obvi-
ously, few Chinese want to beg for food or eat like a beggar. In the case of
raising one’s rice bowl to the mouth, the correct way is to open one’s palm
and use the four fingers to hold the bowl while placing the thumb on its
rim. Keeping the thumb on top of the bowl is necessary not only because it
helps stabilize the grip, but also because holding the rice bowl in this way
distinguishes one from a begger. Presumably to lower themselves while
asking for and receiving food, beggars are thought to hold the bowl with
all five fingers at the bottom, not leaving any of them on the rim. Tapping
the bowl is another taboo, for this is what a beggar might do to attract
attention.

One should do one’s best to avoid rude eating behavior. Conversely,
one could also, in pursuit of sophistocation, make an effort to imitate and
adopt a more refined dining style. Koreans’ insistence on using both a
spoon and chopsticks and their inclination for metal utensils might be
good illustrations in this regard. When asked about the origin of these
two dining customs, many Koreans would answer that these preferences
drew on the dining habit of the yangban (noble) class in the Joseon
dynasty. As Confucianism was held as the ruling ideology during the
period, Korean nobles followed the ancient Confucian rituals and
employed chopsticks only to clasp the food contents in dishes, instead of
using them to convey grain food. To a yangban, using chopsticks to shovel
rice into one’s mouth was undignified and inelegant, hence unacceptable.
Little wonder that Yun Kuk-Hyong was dumbfounded when he saw the
Chinese regularly doing it in the Ming, for many Korean literati considered
the dynasty the exemplar of cultural excellence. The yangban class also
used mostly metal utensils, which helped turn them - the silver variety in
particular - into a status symbol in Korean society, with a lasting influence
still present to this day.

But it is not always up to the upper class to set etiquette standards. The
evolution of table manners and dietary customs has indicated mutual
influences and exchanges between social classes. The acceptance of the
communal dining style could well be a good example, as would the habit of
employing chopsticks as the only eating tool for meals. At least in China,
these two seem to have followed a bottom-up course of development. For
even today, when dining at a formal dinner in an up-market restaurant, not
only are both spoon and chopsticks provided on the table, but food is also
more likely to be served to one’s plates, usually by a waiter; diners are

ii6 Chopsticks: a cultural and culinary history

much more careful not to put their utensils into the common dishes. As
mentioned at the beginning of the chapter, around the twelfth century
when most diners at public eateries had switched to chopsticks as their
dining tool, Lu You, a scholar-official, pronounced that he still used a
spoon to scoop the cooked millet, just as his counterparts would have
done in the previous Tang dynasty. The Introduction also noted that in
Korea today, while using both the spoon and chopsticks is the social
norm, many Koreans are also inclined to pick up rice with their chop-
sticks, especially in a family setting. Communal eating is not common in
Japan, thus jikabashi is unacceptable, as said above. But the fact that the
term exists in Japanese suggests that such behavior is not so uncommon
as one might think, because some Japanese find it acceptable and also do
it in family dining."*^

Needless to say, sharing food is an effective way to improve human
relationships. It is usual that when a person desires to extend or pursue a
friendship with another person, they often suggest that they have a meal
together. When their friendship reaches a certain level, or when the two
become lovers, then sharing food and drink becomes frequent, as part of
an act of affection. In other words, intimacy often trumps other concerns,
health or otherwise. In many parts of the world today, one still sees that a
mother feeds her baby with her spoon or even her mouth, which is
unhygienic but not so uncommon. No wonder that communal dining
tends to take root first among family members, or in informal circum-
stances, before extending to other more formal occasions. When inviting a
guest to a family meal, many Chinese and Vietnamese families find it odd
not to share food with the guest, because the occasion is meant to demon-
strate their hospitality and extend their friendship. By the same token,
while the Japanese feel more comfortable eating food individually, they
also like shabu shabu and sukiyaki (for which they do share food from a
common pot) and find them a useful way to develop relationships.

Nonetheless, communal dining does have its downside: many people
are uncomfortable about eating food touched by others, especially by a
stranger. Some of the aforementioned rules of chopsticks etiquette illus-
trate that concern. One instance is the so-called “probing chopsticks,” or
using one’s chopsticks to dig and mine for food in the common dishes.
“Licking chopsticks” is another. Both examples are distasteful because

There are interesting discussions about jikabashi and how acceptable it is in Japanese
society today. See http://k0machi.y0miuri.c0.jP/t/2008/0110/163598.htm. It appears that
many do not find it so offensive.

Using chopsticks: customs, manners and etiquette

117

people are, presumably, concerned about anyone passing (excessive)
saliva, or germs, onto the dishes intended for all. Germ theory and the
notion of food hygiene have, of course, only been developed in recent
centuries. As late as the nineteenth century, most Americans, finds Nancy
Tomes, were little concerned about “contamination of water and food.”
“They exchanged combs, hairbrushes, and even toothbrushes, and fed
babies from their mouths and spoons, with no sense of hazard.”
However, while it was mostly unknown that food could be an agent for
spreading disease, earlier societies were not entirely unaware that one
might get sick from eating certain types of food, or from taking food
from those who were sick. Nor were they indifferent to the cleanliness of
food. Thus, before the notions of germs and hygiene became well known to
the public, table manners and eating etiquette had already been developed
in some societies, if only for demonstrating politeness and civility. They
ruled against certain types of dining behavior not only because they were
messy, but also because such messiness made the food look unclean and
uninviting to other diners.

Interestingly, using chopsticks, instead of a spoon, in sharing food
balances the desire to be friendly with others and the concern about food
contamination. For if used properly and carefully, following the right
directions, chopsticks minimize the chance of spoiling food with one’s
saliva. Compared with the spoon, chopsticks are smaller in size. They are
also generally pointed at the bottom, not only for the sake of accurately
picking up the food item, but also for avoiding touching other food
contents in the common dish. The dining custom in Korea is a case in
point. While they use both the spoon and chopsticks for their meals,
Koreans are more likely to use chopsticks to partake of side dishes (such
as kimchi) on the table, but not the spoon. One presumed reason is that the
spoon, once used for eating rice or other grain cereal, often has grain
particles stuck on it, and hence looks unclean. And an unclean spoon itself
is disapproved of by Koreans.'*'^ In China where communal dining origi-
nated, most Chinese traditionally only employed chopsticks to share food,
seldom the spoon. Indeed, it was deemed unacceptable if anyone put a
spoon that had been in the mouth into a big bowl of soup intended for all

See Nancy Tomes, The Gospel of Germs: Men, Women, and the Microbe in American Life
(Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1998), 3.

Pan Lili 6c Jiang Kun, “Guanyu ZhongHan chuantong yongcan lijie de yanjiu” (Studies of
the traditional eating etiquette in China and Korea), Xiandai qiye jiaoyu (Modern
Enterprise Education), 10 (2008), 158-159.

ii8 Chopsticks: a cultural and culinary history

the others at the table. Such a circumstance usually demanded a serving
spoon, or a ladle, for everyone to scoop the soup first into their own bowl.

All in all, when communal eating became a widely practiced dietary
custom, chopsticks further proved their usefulness. As a utensil, they were
now not only used for transporting nongrain food dishes but also grain
food, still the main portion of a meal for most people. As such, chopsticks
became the primary eating tool whereas the spoon became secondary. And
compared with the spoon, chopsticks are more versatile and flexible; in
conveying food, chopsticks enable a diner to take whatever they desire,
and in a desirable portion. As chopsticks assumed a more important role in
the Ming, Chinese archaeologists have found that the two utensils were no
longer buried together in tombs. Instead, more chopsticks than spoons
were uncovered in Ming tombs, indicating that their separation had begun.
And this trend continued into the following Qing period. Compared with
their counterparts in the earlier periods, the chopsticks made in Ming and
Qing China became more refined. Whether they were made of wood,
bamboo or metal, the chopsticks used in the period often had exquisite
decorations and engravings, suggesting their increased importance as a
dining utensil."^®

This reversal between spoon and chopsticks, of course, did not lead to
the disappearance of spoons in Asia. It only led to the spoon taking on a
new role in assisting the eating of nongrain dishes, soup in particular
(Koreans are the known exception, even though some Koreans also
drink soup with rice in it, as mentioned above). Eating a hot pot meal
might be a good illustration. Chopsticks are indispensable for loading as
well as conveying the food items cooking in the broth. But at the end,
people often like to drink the broth, as it has absorbed the flavor of all the
ingredients. For that purpose, a ladle and also a spoon become necessary,
for drinking directly from the pot (which is still hot) is impractical. The
changing role of the spoon was also shown in its design. The dagger-
shaped hi had long fallen into disuse, as mentioned above. During the
eighteenth century, a new egg-shaped spoon made of porcelain, known as
a “soup spoon” (tangchi), became popular in China. Like a modern spoon,
it is circular, deep, and designed to hold liquids easily. This spoon later also
spread to Japan and earned the name of chirirenge, literally meaning
“fallen lotus petal”. The popularity of this new soup spoon perhaps
completed the change in roles of the spoon and chopsticks as dining
tools for the Chinese and beyond.

Liu, Zhongguo zhu wenhuashi^ 304-328.

Using chopsticks: customs, manners and etiquette 119

While the design of spoons improved, chopsticks changed their name.
In early China, chopsticks were pronounced zhu and written with either
the bamboo or wood radical. But during the Ming, people in the lower
Yangzi River region of Southeast China began to call chopsticks kuaizi (lit.
quick little boys). Lu Rong’s (1436-1494) Notes in the Legume Garden
(Shuyuan zaiji) explains that the new name was given by the sailors along
the Grand Canal because of their superstition. Though the pronunciation
zhu can mean “help,” it also sounds the same as “stop,” which is a taboo in
sailing. Hence the sailors changed it to kuaizi, combining the word kuai
(fast or quick) with the suffix zi or er - kuaier. In a later period, the bamboo
radical was added on top of the kuai, indicating the material from which
chopsticks were usually made. Like the substitution of chopsticks for the
spoon in eating cooked grain, this nomenclatural change took a bottom-up
route and became rather slowly accepted by the educated class, as admitted
by Li Yuheng, another Ming scholar, in his Random Notes on the Barges
(Tuipeng wuyu).^° Thus for a long while, zhu and kuaizi remained inter-
changeable. In the famous Dream of the Red Chamber (Hongloumeng), a
novel written in the late eighteenth century, the author(s) used both zhu
and kuaizi to refer to chopsticks. Through the nineteenth century, kuaizi
remained a vernacular term as scholars still preferred zhu in their writ-
ings.’ ' But over time, it gradually became more accepted by the modern
Chinese whereas the word zhu, as of today, has become a historical term.
By contrast, the name of chopsticks has not changed elsewhere in the
chopsticks cultural sphere. It is jeotgarak in Korean, hashi in Japanese
and dua in Vietnamese, all of which might be considered derivatives of the
Chinese word zhu.

Liu Yun, ed., Zhongguo zhuwenhua daguan (A grand view of chopsticks culture in China)
(Beijing: Kexue chubanshe, 195)6), 52.-53.

Lu Rong, Shuyuan zaji (Notes in the legume garden) (Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 1985), 8.
Kuaizi appears in Luo Guanzhong & Feng Menglong, Pingyao zhuan (Subduing the
demons), and Xizhou Sheng’s Xingshi yinyuan (A romance to awaken the world), whereas
zhu is used in the Mingshi (Ming history), compiled by Qing official historians, and in Ji
Xiaolan’s Yuewei caotang biji (Stories by Ji Xiaolan). These texts were all written during
the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, or during the late Ming and early Qing.

A pair inseparable: chopsticks as gift,
metaphor and symbol

The joy of eating is given great importance in China; and cooking, through
the decades, has been dreamed and fussed over, in times of want as well as in
times of plenty, until it has ceased to be plain cooking, but has grown and
developed into an art. Food has been represented through other mediums of
art, especially poetry, literature and folklore; and these tales and food beliefs
have been handed down, from generation to generation, with ever-increasing
glamour.

Doreen Yen Hung Feng, The Joy of Chinese Cooking

Green when young and yellow old
They have shared their minds forever.

Whether bitter or sweet.

They always taste them together.'

Zhuo Wenjun, a woman who lived in Han dynasty China, allegedly wrote
this poem to her lover Sima Xiangru (i 79-1 27 bce), when she gave him a
pair of chopsticks. In his legendary work, Sima Qian records some details
about their love story, making it proverbial throughout Chinese history.
Sima Xiangru was an illustrious writer, known for his mastery of rhapsody
ifu), a prevalent literary genre during the period. (Shu Xi, for instance,
wrote a rhapsody on doughy food in the third century, as mentioned in
Chapter 3.) As Sima Xiangru’s fame grew, he also received several mar-
riage proposals. On one occasion, Zhuo Wangsun, the richest man in the
country, invited Sima to a banquet. Sima went reluctantly. At the party, he
chanted a rhapsody, receiving many accolades. Attracted by Sima’s talent.

^ Fu Yun, “Qutan kuaizi wenhua” (An informal talk on the chopsticks culture), Luoyang
ribao (Luoyang daily), November 13, 2008.

120

A pair inseparable: chopsticks as gift, metaphor and symbol 121

Zhuo Wenjun, Zhuo Wangsun’s newly widowed daughter, fell in love
with him. But her father disapproved of it because Sima Xiangru was poor.
However, the two managed to elope to Chengdu, Sichuan, eventually
forcing the father to give in and accept their marriage.

If Zhao was determined to be with Sima Xiangru, her poem also betrays
that she was a bit uncertain whether the love between them would be
lasting, thus she presented both the chopsticks and the poem to express her
wish and hope. Beautiful as it is, the poem, as well as the chopsticks-giving
story, was most likely made up by people of later times (it is not found in
Sima Qian’s work). However, since chopsticks are always used in pairs,
demonstrating their inseparableness, they have long become a favorite gift
for newlyweds, as well as a token of love exchanged between couples
and lovers in the chopsticks cultural sphere. In Japan, when people go to
Shinto shrines to ask for fortunes and blessings, they can also purchase
several types of chopsticks. Two kinds of chopsticks are most popular:
enmusubibashi, or “lover chopsticks,” and miotobashi, or “husband-wife
chopsticks.” Like those used in Japanese households, these chopsticks vary
in length; the stick for the man tends to be slightly longer than the one for
the woman (zo-21 cm vs. zo-i8 cm)."^ Aside from Shinto shrines, these
chopsticks can also be purchased in stores and given as a present to lovers
and couples (Plate zi).

Likewise, across China, among the Chinese and minority groups,
chopsticks are not only a popular wedding gift but also a popular object
at wedding ceremonies. In his book, Lan Xiang describes many wedding
customs, many of which involve the use of chopsticks. In Shanxi Province
of Northwest China, for instance, when the groom and his entourage go
to the bride’s home to fetch her, her father often prepares a pair of bottles
containing some grain. Using red strings, he ties these bottles together
with a pair of chopsticks. These are given by the father to both the bride
and the groom, carrying his wish for their inseparableness and lasting
love after marriage. Elsewhere in Shanxi, the chopsticks given to newly-
weds by the bride’s family are first to be used by a boy, usually her brother
or nephew, at the wedding banquet after he escorts the bride’s dowry to
the groom’s family. To ensure the couple’s inseparableness, the two sticks
must be as identical as possible and have a smooth surface, in the hope of
the couple’s perfect “match” and their “smooth” life together in the
future.^ In other words, the pair of chopsticks is not supposed to be

^ Isshiki, Hashi no Bunkashi, ^ han,Kuaizi, buzhishi kuaizi,

122

Chopsticks: a cultural and culinary history

in different colors, designs or lengths like the “husband-wife chopsticks”
in Japan.

For their “inseparableness,” chopsticks have become a useful tool for
proposing marriage and announcing a new relationship - the Japanese
enmusubibashi is an illustration of the latter. Among the Klau people in
Guizhou, China, once the young man finds his love, his mother will carry a
pair of chopsticks wrapped in red paper, to the girl’s family to propose
marriage. She usually need not utter a word because the chopsticks she
brings with her have already made clear her purpose. Few know when
this began. But instances where chopsticks are used in making wedding
proposals were found in traditional China. According to a thirteenth-
century text, when a man intends to marry someone, he is to propose
marriage to the bride’s parents and seek her family’s permission. On such
an occasion, he will bring myriad gifts to his intended future parents-in-
law. Should his proposal be accepted, the future bride’s parents will send
his family objects such as rolls of silk and jewelry, together with a pair of
wine cups, which hold water instead of wine. Most importantly, the bride’s
family needs to include a pair of chopsticks, two green scallions and four
golden fish to show their agreement to the marriage. The pair of chopsticks
is called huiyu zhu (lit. give-back fish and chopsticks) though the text does
not specify what all these objects stand for. Giving them, however, seems
essential in completing the engagement process. In order to exhibit their
affluence and strong commitment to the proposed marriage, according to
the text, some wealthy families opt for gold or silver to make the fish and
chopsticks and silk scallions instead of real ones.^

It is quite possible that chopsticks were a part of the gifts from the
bride’s family because they were deemed indispensable in life. That is,
chopsticks are a metaphor, or perhaps a metonymy, for life itself. As
marriage indicates a new beginning in one’s life, many wedding customs
in China often involve chopsticks to mark such an occasion. Examples of
this abound. In some regions of Northwest China, when the bride leaves
her parents’ home for her new home, she is to toss a pair of chopsticks on
the floor, bidding farewell to the life she had with her parents. In other
places, a male family member - either her brother or her father - throws a
pair of chopsticks at the moment when the bride leaves home. After she

Ibid., 120.

^ Wu Zimu & Zhou Mi, Mengliang lu, Wulin jiushi {Dreaming of Kaifeng in Hangzhou;
History of Lin’an) (Ji’nan: Shandong youyi chubanshe, 2001), 281. Meng Yuanlao also
mentions chopsticks in his Dongjing menghualu, suggesting that the custom might be
practiced in both North and South China. Meng, Dongjing menghualu, 32-33.

A pair inseparable: chopsticks as gift, metaphor and symbol 123

arrives at her new home, the bride then picks up another pair of chopsticks
as a symbolic gesture of embracing her new life. Moreover, picking up the
new pair of chopsticks also connotes that she, as a wife, is to help shoulder
the responsibility for the wellbeing of the new family. There is also a
tradition for the groom’s family members to hide chopsticks at the couple’s
new home, asking the bride to seek them out. This is, symbolically, to test
the bride’s capability; the difficulty she faces in finding these hidden chop-
sticks comes to serve as a friendly warning about the future challenges she
may encounter in her new life.*’

Among some ethnic minority groups in China, chopsticks tend to figure
even more prominently in wedding ceremonies (Plate 29). The She people,
residing in the mountainous areas in Southeast China, have a tradition that
before leaving home, as the new bride is having her last meal with her
siblings, she needs to pass her rice bowl and chopsticks to them, not only to
say goodbye to them but also to ask them to take care of her parents on her
behalf. At their wedding banquets, the Yao people in Hunan Province have
a custom that the Master of Ceremonies first feeds the newlyweds simulta-
neously with two pairs of chopsticks in both hands, whereas the Daur
people in Manchuria have the newlyweds finish a bowl of glutinous rice
together, sharing one pair of chopsticks. While the customs are different,
the chopsticks are a useful tool in teaching the new couple the importance
of cooperation in sharing their lives together; in the latter case, if the
chopsticks are a symbol of “inseparableness,” the glutinous rice carries
the wish for an affectionate - if also “gooey” - relationship between the
couple.^

Due to the nomenclatural change occurring in Ming China, discussed
in the previous chapter, chopsticks came to be known as kuaizi instead
of zhu. Interestingly, when the sailors called chopsticks kuaizi for
quick sailing, they perhaps did not realize that the word kuai could also
combine with le to mean “happiness,” or kuaile, in Chinese. As such,
chopsticks became more in demand on festive occasions, not merely for
enjoying the abundance of food. Though the word “zi” is a suffix in kuaizi,
it could also take on the meaning of “son” or “child.” So with a stretch of
the imagination, kuaizi could be construed as “having a child/son
quickly.” This new meaning has added considerably to the appeal of
chopsticks as a wedding present from the Ming period to this day.
In fact, the propitious meanings associated with the name change have
rendered chopsticks a must-have item at and for a wedding, either as

^ Lan, Kuaizi, buzhishi kuaizi, 88-89, 96-97.

^ Ibid., 105, 109, 121.

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a present or as a charm for the couple, carrying a wish not only for a good,
harmonious marriage but also that they will soon be blessed with children.

The chopsticks-tossing gesture at wedding ceremonies has also gained
more vigor. In Zhejiang, there is an old tradition where the guests, after the
newlyweds enter their bedroom, stick a bunch of chopsticks through the
window into the room - the windows then were covered by paper - and let
them drop on the floor, representing a wish for the couple to quickly bear a
child. Others would perform the act at the wedding banquet, with someone
either singing a song or giving a toast while tossing several pairs of chop-
sticks on the floor. As chopsticks are a good luck charm, many guests
would like to pick them up from the floor and take them home. There is
also a practice in the regions of Jiangsu Province where the groom gives
away chopsticks to the guests, whereas in Henan members from both the
bride’s and groom’s families can even “steal” the chopsticks at wedding
ceremonies to partake in the good fortune of the newlyweds. Just as a
female guest at a Western wedding ceremony wishes to catch the bouquet
of flowers thrown by bride, Chinese guests desire a pair of chopsticks on
such an occasion.*

Chopsticks also appear frequently in fairytales about love and marriage
in other Asian countries, even though there was no name change of the
utensil as in China. The “Hundred-Septa Bamboos” story of Vietnam tells
that once upon a time, there was a villager who had a beautiful daughter
and a loyal and diligent servant. The young servant fell in love with the
daughter, hoping to marry her, since the villager had promised that “He
would marry his daughter to a hardworking man.” However, he later
changed his mind and instead intended his daughter to marry the wealth-
iest man in the village. The young servant then suggested to the father that
as bamboo chopsticks were to be used at the wedding banquet, anyone
who could And the bamboos whose stems had exactly one hundred septa
should marry her. The villager agreed. Thanks to some magic power, the
young man found or made the bamboos with exactly one hundred septa
and brought them back. As a result, he succeeded in fulfilling his dream of
marrying the villager’s daughter.^

Among the Japanese, chopsticks are hailed as “sticks for one’s life,” or
seimei no tsue, literarily supporting one’s life from the beginning to the
end. As such, chopsticks are used as a helpful marker to celebrate an

Ibid., 87-99.

Mukai 6c Hashimoto, Hashi, 249-250. This story also in a way confirms that in Vietnam,
chopsticks are quite commonly made of bamboo as they are in China.

A pair inseparable: chopsticks as gift, metaphor and symbol 125

important day in life. For example, after a child is born, usually on the
hundredth day but it could be as early as the seventh or as late as the
hundred and twentieth day, a ceremony is held at which an adult would
feed the child a bowl of rice with a pair of chopsticks, usually made of
unpainted willow tree wood. The chopsticks used at the ceremony are
called okuizomebashi and the ceremony itself is named ohashizomeish-
ikid° Of course, at such a young age, a child is unable to use chopsticks.
The purpose of the ceremony is to introduce the utensil to him/her, since
they are the “sticks for life,” with the wish that the child lead an easy, or
hunger-free, life. What is also common is to present special chopsticks to
elders on important birthdays to wish for and celebrate their long life.
These chopsticks acquire names like enmeibashi (extend-life chopsticks),
enjubashi (prolong-life chopsticks), chojubashi (long-life chopsticks) and
fukujubashi (happy-life chopsticks). They are given to an elder often on
his/her sixty-first, seventieth, seventy-seventh, eighty-eighth or ninety-
ninth birthday.”

Everyone celebrates the New Year in Japan, which makes the month
of January, or shogatsu lE.^, the most important holiday season. Before
the Meiji Restoration of 1868, the Japanese used a lunar calendar so
the shogatsu fell between late January and early February. Now that the
Western calendar has been adopted in Japan, the New Year occurs at the
same time as in the Western world. However, the customs in celebrating
the New Year retain elements from the past. For instance, new chopsticks
are required to eat the meals on New Year’s day, customarily made of
unpainted willow tree wood. Called oiwaibashi (celebratory or festive
chopsticks), these chopsticks take the shape of ryokuchibashi (lit. two-
ended chopsticks), with a thicker, or rounder, body and two slimmer and
pointed ends (Plate 22). The two-ended chopsticks are required because
they enable the Japanese to share food with kami around them - one end of
the chopsticks is for the people to eat and the other for kamid^ This shinjin
kyoshoku (kami and people sharing food together) extends a Shinto belief.
That the Japanese use toribashi, or serving/community chopsticks, to
distribute food also originated at Shinto ceremonies. After offering foods
to kami, the priest usually employs a pair of serving chopsticks to serve the
foods to the participants.^^

Oiwaibashi are mostly made of unpainted whitewood because of Shinto
and Buddhist influences. While Shintoism prizes direct communication

Isshiki,, Hashi no Bunkashi, Ibid., 6o. Ibid., 57-61.

Ibid., 134-135.

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Chopsticks: a cultural and culinary history

between the human world and the natural world, the Buddhist tenets
emphasize simplicity in life. Also, most of the oiwaibashi are made of
willow tree wood, for if one follows the lunar calendar, the New Year
begins in early spring; by then willow trees have already budded, usually
earlier than other trees. Using their wood thus celebrates the vitality of
life.^"^ The round body of the ryokuchibashi chopsticks carries a special
meaning for one’s wish for the New Year: it portends, as well as promises,
the arrival of a lush, fertile and abundant year.^^ As celebratory chop-
sticks, oiwaibashi are also used on other holidays, such as the Coming of
Age Day and Children’s Day. As such, celebratory chopsticks are also
called “ceremonial chopsticks,” or harenohashi, as opposed to “daily
chopsticks,” or kenohashi. Made of naked wood, celebratory or ceremo-
nial chopsticks are usually purchased anew for the occasion and discarded
afterwards because, according to Shinto belief, once placed in the mouth,
these unpainted wooden chopsticks carry one’s spirit, which cannot be
washed off; throwing them away forges a certain communication between
human and kamid'^ By contrast, daily chopsticks are painted with lacquer
for durability and, with one pointed end, are not used to share food with
kami. And nowadays, most daily chopsticks are made of plastic, a material
that has no sacred status in Shintoism.

Pronounced hashi, the Japanese word for chopsticks is a homonym of
“bridge.” On life’s important junctures, chopsticks have indeed played
such a role for the Japanese, enabling them to establish spiritual connec-
tions between one and another, between the realm of humans and the
realm of kami, between the living and the dead and between this world and
the netherworld. When someone travels away from home, such as when a
soldier leaves for a war, for instance, other family members would still
prepare and serve food for the traveler when they eat a meal, together with
the person’s chopsticks. Termed kagezen, this meal expresses their wish for
the traveler’s safety and wellbeing. As explained above, since the traveler’s
chopsticks retain his/her spirit, the family believes that their wishes can be
transmitted to the traveler by this “bridge.” In a different way, this belief
that after use one’s chopsticks contain one’s spirit also led to the Japanese
fondness for disposable chopsticks, a subject to be discussed in the next
chapter.

Mukai & Hashimoto, Hashi, 193. Isshiki, Hashi no Bunkashi, 60-61.

Wilson, Consider the Fork, 200. In olden times when the Japanese used chopsticks to eat meals
outside, once finished, they would break the chopsticks in half before throwing them away, lest
their spirit be attached to the chopsticks. Also see Isshiki, Hashi no Bunkashi, 11-15.

Isshiki, Hashi no Bunkashi, 67-68.

A pair inseparable: chopsticks as gift, metaphor and symbol izy

The action of forming some communication between this world and
the netherworld is referred to in Japanese as hashiivatashi (lit. bridge-
crossing). Thus, a pair of chopsticks is an important must-have object at
a funeral, completing its last mission to send the person to the other world.
Just like the ceremony where a newborn is fed by an adult with a pair of
chopsticks, a dying person, too, is offered a meal, with rice in his/her
favorite bowl and a pair of chopsticks standing in it. Since the meal is
placed next to the person’s pillow, it is called the “pillow meal” (makur-
ameshi) and the chopsticks are tatebashi, as they stand vertically in the
bowl. After serving the last meal to the deceased, chopsticks have one more
role to play in the traditional Japanese funeral, which is the act of
hashiivatashi mentioned above. Given the Buddhist influence, it has been
a well-established practice for the Japanese to cremate the dead. After the
cremation, family members would each hold a pair of chopsticks to pick up
a bone from the ashes and pass it from one to another. This act was
intended to build a spiritual tie between them and the deceased, or between
the living and the underworld. Indeed, for the Japanese, as the aphorism
goes, “one’s life begins with [the use of] chopsticks, it also ends with
chopsticks.”

The ways chopsticks are used on those occasions also influenced chop-
sticks etiquette in Japan. In performing hashiivatashi, one holds an item
with one’s chopsticks and passes it on to another pair of chopsticks. But to
do the same at a dining table would be frowned upon. As mentioned in the
previous chapter, this act is called utsuribashi, one of the chopsticks-use
taboos for the Japanese. As one eats, food items should be delivered either
to a plate or directly to the mouth, never to another pair of chopsticks in
Japan. Also mentioned in the previous chapter, to leave a pair of chopsticks
standing vertically in a rice bowl is universally forbidden across the chop-
sticks cultural sphere. For the Japanese, one only does this when offering
the grain to the dying or dead person. Similarly, many Chinese commun-
ities dislike having chopsticks stand vertically in bowls because it resembles
incense-burning, a Buddhist ritual to mourn the dead.

In the Korean Peninsula, instead of chopsticks, spoons appear more
frequently in folklore, reflecting dining preferences. For example, a fable
called “Mysterious Snake” describes a nice girl from a wealthy (mer-
chant?) family who fed food to a snake with a spoon. The snake was
later killed, but her kindness and her gesture to an animal perceived as
malicious was well rewarded - she was later married to a yangban and the

Ibid., 61-65.

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couple lived happily ever after Interestingly, however, if push comes to
shove, Koreans also think that chopsticks are more basic than the spoon
for eating. A folk legend from Baekje, Korea, known as “The Set of Three
Utensils,” is illustrative. The tale goes that after their father’s death, the
elder brother took all the inheritance, forcing his younger brother to leave
home. The younger brother received three basic utensils from a Buddhist
monk, which consisted of an eating mat, a bowl made of a dried gourd and
a pair of chopsticks. After hiking down the mountain, it turned dark and
the young man found no shelter or food. So he unfolded the mat. All of a
sudden, a palace with many luxurious rooms appeared. Next he scooped
the gourd bowl, and all kinds of delicious foods poured out. He lastly
tapped the pair of chopsticks and several beautiful women came to him.
In other words, these three items - a mat, a bowl and a pair of chopsticks -
are the daily necessities for a Korean in Baekje.

In Vietnam where chopsticks had been adopted as an eating tool earlier
than they were in Baekje, Korea, the folklore tradition also depicts the
utensil’s importance in life. A folktale called “Real Son vs. Adopted Son” is
one, which was also about a family dispute over inheritance. A man named
Ch’ep, meaning “carp fish,” had both an adopted son and a biological son.
After he died, his wife complained that the adopted son, who was older,
took all the family money, leaving nothing for his younger brother. When a
judge was assigned to handle the dispute, he observed how the brothers ate
their meals. While chopsticks were given to both of them, the biological
son used them properly whereas the adopted son did not use them -
he instead used his fingers to put food in his mouth. At dinner, the judge
gave them rice and a carp fish dish. The adopted son ate the fish and the rice
whereas the biological son did not touch the fish. When asked why, he
answered: “Since my father’s name means carp fish, I don’t feel like eating
it [out of my respect for my father] . ” The two brothers’ different behaviors,
especially their divergent dining manners, helped the judge to see that the
biological son was indeed wronged by his brother, or the adopted son.^‘ In
a word, using chopsticks to eat food became a way for the Vietnamese to
see whether or not one had a proper upbringing.

Since chopsticks use assumes such significance in life, the utensil has
become associated with myriad meanings on different occasions. Like

Mukai & Hashimoto, Hashi, 247. According to the Confucian social order, merchants
were ranked lowest in the four-class social structure, below the literati, or the yangban in
the Korean case, peasants and artisans. So for a girl from a rich merchant family to marry a
yangban was considered good fortune for her at the time.

Ibid., 246. Ibid., 248-249.

2.0

A pair inseparable: chopsticks as gift, metaphor and symbol 129

the Japanese, for example, the Zhuang people in China celebrate a child’s
birthday with chopsticks, such as when s/he is one year old. Longer than
the usual kind, the utensil is used by the child’s parents to feed a bowl of
long noodles to the birthday child. The long noodles and the long chop-
sticks extend their wish for the child’s long life in the years to come.’^^
Using longer chopsticks to deliver birthday food is particular to this case.
But eating noodles on a birthday is fairly common, practiced almost every-
where in China and beyond. It also has a long history, and was already
quite common during the Tang dynasty.^^ A long life means good fortune.
Some fortune-tellers in traditional China thus used chopsticks as a tool
for prediction. Beginning as early as the tenth century, this practice con-
tinued to gain popularity, fueling the belief in chopsticks’ magic and mystic
power. By the late nineteenth century, it had become a religious cult for
some Chinese as they regularly worshipped and prayed to the “chopsticks
spirit” or “chopsticks god” - kuaizi shen - for good fortune.^"*

It is unknown if chopsticks, too, were used in fortune-telling in Japan.
But there is a well-known legend about why festive chopsticks need to
take the shape of ryokuchibashi with thicker, rounder bodies and two
tapered ends. It involves the death of a short-lived shogun named Ashikaga
Yoshikatsu (1434-1443). Ashikaga Yoshikatsu became the shogun at a
young age in 1441, after his father, Ashikaga Yoshinori (1394-1441), was
murdered by one of his lieutenants. Several months later, either in the
first month or the fifth month of the lunar calendar, the young shogun
entertained his ministers with a banquet. When he was eating a pancake,
his chopsticks suddenly broke in half. Then in the fall, he unexpectedly fell
from his horse on an excursion and died ten days later. Ashikaga
Yoshikatsu was succeeded by his brother Ashikaga Yoshimasa (1435-
1490) who, in order to prevent the same misfortune from befalling anyone
else, made chopsticks that had thicker, stronger bodies so they would not
break easily.

In the history of China, no similar cases are found where broken chop-
sticks portended an untimely death. But there are instances in which one
breaks a pair of chopsticks in order to manifest one’s determination.
According to a Tang history. Emperor Xuanzong (r. 847-859) once ordered
his daughter. Princess Yongfu, to marry someone. But the Princess was
utterly unhappy with the order. While eating with the Emperor, she broke

Liu, Zhongguo zhu wenhuashi, zS^. 'Wang,Tangdai yinshi, 6.

Liu, Zhongguo zhu wenhuashi, 230.

Mukai 6c Hashimoto, Hashi, 193; Isshiki, Hashi no Bunkashi, 18.

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her chopsticks and spoon to protest. Her act, which implied that she would
kill herself if forced, changed her father’s mind. The Emperor later married
off another of his daughters in place of Princess Yongfu.^^ To what extent
chopsticks represent, symbolically and spiritually, life itself certainly varies
from people to people. But by and large, across Asia it is regarded as
ominous if an accident happens to the utensil. Indeed, even if someone
fails to hold chopsticks properly or carefully, causing them to drop on the
floor, it could also be considered inauspicious. To some, this might bode ill
for the person’s future, especially if this occurs at an important juncture in
life. In imperial China, if a candidate en route to the civil service examina-
tion, for instance, accidentally dropped a pair of chopsticks while eating his
food, it would be seen as unlucky, causing him, as well as others, to think
that he would fail the upcoming examination.^^

If dropping chopsticks was an omen for failing exams, raising chop-
sticks had the opposite meaning. In Tang China, poetry writing was
particularly popular among members of the literati. Seeing an old friend
whom he had known since he was a child, who was en route to the imperial
examination, Liu Yuxi (772-842), a famous Tang poet, wrote a poem in
which he sang:

At your birth when they first hung out the bow,

I was the most honored guest at the birthday feast.

Wielding my chopsticks I ate boiled noodles,

And composed a congratulatory poem on a heavenly unicorn.

Here Liu wished that by raising his chopsticks, he could help the young
man to launch, through passing the examination, a high-flying career, like
the Heavenly Unicorn. Lew had the luck to be blessed by Liu Yuxi in a
poem. But raising chopsticks at a dining table has been commonly prac-
ticed among chopsticks users as a good gesture. It is usually seen when a
host invites the guests to eat the food. Among the Japanese, it is polite for
anyone, before eating his/her food, to first say to the others, be they family
members or friends and guests, “itadakimasu,” which literarily means
“I now accept it,” or “I shall start eating.” When saying it, one usually

Ouyang Xiu, Xin Tangshu (New Tang history) - “Yu Zhining, Xiu Lie, Ao Zong, Pang
Yan” (Biographies of Yu Zhining, Xiu Lie, Ao Zong and Bang Yan), HDWZK, 4010.
One reason that such an incident (dropping chopsticks on the floor) is taken as bad luck
is that "to fall on the floor” (luodi ^iik) is the homonym of "to fail the examination”
{luodi in Chinese; the second characters in the two phrases are pronounced exactly
the same.

Translation is from David R. Knechtges, "A Literary Feast: Food in Early Chinese
Literature,” Journal of the American Oriental Society, 106:1, 61.

A pair inseparable: chopsticks as gift, metaphor and symbol 13 1

also raises one’s chopsticks horizontally with both hands and bows slightly.
Although the gesture perhaps started in Buddhist temples (mentioned
in Chapter 4), the sentence seems more Shintoistic (Buddhism and Shintoism
did blend and coalesce in their practices). Since in traditional Shinto beliefs kami
is omnipresent, the sentence denotes that the eater receives, or accepts, food
from kami - s/he is asking permission from the deity to begin eating the food.

While offering food to ancestors and spirits is common among the
Chinese, they do not traditionally partake in, nor practice, the idea that
humans share food simultaneously with supernatural beings. But in offering
the food to the spirits, utensils are always provided, on the assumption that
the spirits also need them to eat. This notion was/is commonly practiced
among various peoples in China. For example, when offering food and
drinks to spirits and ancestors, the Manchus always placed a pair of chop-
sticks and a spoon either on top of or next to the bowls. And this custom had
begun before the Manchus entered China proper in the mid-seventeenth
century, or before their extensive exposure to Han Chinese customs. After
the offering, eating began - there was no such custom that one needed to
express acceptance of the food from deities among various peoples in China.

However, the Chinese have attached certain meanings to the act of
wielding chopsticks, or juzhu. While seemingly a natural act - one has to
first lift chopsticks from the table before moving them to the dishes to clasp
food - it could at times become an important gesture with both intended and
unintended consequences. Examples of this abound, past and present,
shown in historical texts and literary tropes. While he writes in his poem
that he wielded his chopsticks to send his best wishes to his friend, Liu Yuxi
was not the first to coin the phrase. An earlier usage of the term was found in
one of the histories written by Li Yanshou, the Tang historian. When
describing the history of the Southern Liang dynasty (502-557), Li tells a
story about Lii Sengzhen, a model and modest official. One of the examples
showing his modesty was that, per Li’s record, Lii never raised his chopsticks
from the table and ate the food at imperial dinners with the emperor.

See Zhen Jun, Tianzhi ouwen (Legends of the heavenly realm) (Beijing: Beijing guji
chubanshe, 1982), 22-25. Though the text was written in the late nineteenth century,
Zhen (1837-1920), a learned Manchu, recorded many traditional customs of his people in
earlier centuries.

According to the historical text, Lii only used chopsticks to eat a dessert offered by the
emperor while he was a bit drunk. His unusual behavior cracked up the emperor. See Li
Yanshou, “Biography of Lii Sengzhen,” in Nanshi (History of the southern dynasties) -
"Lii Sengzhen” (Biography of Lii Sengzhen), HDWZK, 1396. A search in ZJGK finds that
the phrase juzhu appeared 561 times in various texts from the Tang to the Qing periods.

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Lii Sengzhen’s behavior is portrayed as exceptional because few can resist
food, especially when it is bestowed by the imperial court.

Over time, what Lii Sengzhen did became exemplary of appropriate
table manners as well as of good moral character. Gao Chu (1574-1655)
was a Ming scholar-official known for his sympathy toward the poor.
When he witnessed a famine, seeing dead bodies on the road, he wrote:
“Who could wield his chopsticks [and eat the food] and not cry to Heaven,
yet Heaven was so high, hardly hearing [the cry].”^^ Overcome by his
sorrow, Gao was unable to hold up his chopsticks for food - a figurative
description underscoring his compassion and humanity. Yet in real life,
whether and how one should wield one’s chopsticks in front of food could
be a serious matter. For example, it is expected in China that when invited
to a meal, a polite guest would not be the first one to grab the chopsticks
and dig into the food; it is better to wait until the host or the senior first puts
his/her hand on the chopsticks. To demonstrate hospitality, conversely, a
host needs to raise his/her chopsticks to gesture and urge, sometimes
repeatedly, others to eat. This tradition is also observable in other cultures.
When eating at home, for example, it is customary that a senior first apply
his/her chopsticks and start eating before anyone else does. According to a
Ming text, wielding one’s chopsticks without invitation was a disorderly
social behavior during that era. It could become even worse if the person
also put down the chopsticks and left the table after gulping down his food
while others were still working on theirs.^^

If a minister could display his modesty by not touching his chopsticks
in front of food, then an emperor could also show his humility towards,
or bestow his kindheartedness onto, his counselor by holding chopsticks
for him. One such case happened in the fifth century during the Northern
Wei dynasty (386-557), a regime of the Xianbei people who invaded and
unified North China after the Han. Cui Hao (38i?-45o), a brilliant
strategist credited with the success, received such treatment from
Emperor Taiwu (r. 4Z4-452), the dynasty’s third ruler. As they were
quite close, historical records suggest, the Emperor often called on Cui
at his residence, sometimes during his mealtime. Instead of asking Cui to
stop eating, the Emperor often picked up the chopsticks and gave them to
Cui, encouraging him to finish the meal. The Emperor’s unusual gesture
suggested his eagerness for Cui’s advice and his openhandedness toward

Gao Chu, Jingshan’an ji, ZJGK, 282.

This was referred to as “shiqujiu” (lit. lost manners), see Lu Ji, Gujin shuohai (Sea of
stories of the past and present), in ZJGK, 490-491.

A pair inseparable: chopsticks as gift, metaphor and symbol 133

Cui, for few emperors in China would act the same way in treating a
minister. However, by accepting the Emperor’s exceptional graciousness,
Cui Hao, in stark contrast to Lii Sengzhen’s prudence, also unveiled his
vanity. And he paid a hefty price in the end; implicated falsely in a
conspiracy, Cui was later put to death by the Emperor.

Besides juzhu, or to raise, hold and wield chopsticks for food, Chinese
authors also wrote stories involving touzhu, or dropping and tossing
chopsticks, suggesting such a practice had a long history. As mentioned
in Chapter 2, together with the spoon, chopsticks made an early appear-
ance in Chen Shou’s History of the Three Kingdoms. Startled by Cao Cao’s
remarks, Liu Bei dropped both his spoon and chopsticks. Since then,
touzhu has become a stock phrase to help describe someone’s fear, shock
and/or surprise. In the wake of the Tang dynasty’s fall in the tenth century,
several military strongmen vied for control of China proper. Gao Jixing
( 8 5 8-9 2,9 ), an ambitious general who rose to power through the ranks, was
one of them. While collaborating with the Late Tang dynasty (923-937),
Gao planned to invade Sichuan but was unsure if it was the right move.
While he hesitated, another army quickly took Sichuan. The news came
when Gao was just about to eat his meal. Upon hearing it, Gao “dropped
his spoon and chopsticks,” as one historical text puts it, regretting his
earlier indecision. In the end, Gao only managed to establish a small
kingdom, without ever seizing Sichuan.

One could drop one’s utensils out of shock or fear, one could also inten-
tionally toss or put down one’s chopsticks to express certain feelings -
happiness, unhappiness or mixed emotions. The chopstick-tossing custom
at wedding ceremonies is an illustration of this; the bride who tosses her
chopsticks on the wedding day might want to express at once her sadness for
leaving her parents behind and her happiness at beginning a new life.
As losing one’s chopsticks is generally regarded as inauspicious, even fore-
boding, in literary tropes, touzhu is often depicted as an unusual and
unnatural act, associated with anxiety, frustration and angst. That is.

Sima Guang, Zizhi tongjian (A comprehensive mirror of aid in government) - “Cui Hao”
(Biography of Cui Hao), HDWZK, 1330.

The case that Gao Jixing dropped his spoon and chopsticks upon hearing about Sichuan is
recorded in the Shiguo chunqiu {Spring and autumn annals of the ten kingdoms), a
historicaltextby WuShichen, in/j<i2« i,ZJGK, 741. “Dropping utensils” seems a standard
usage in describing one’s surprise and other high emotions. One such usage is found in
Zhang Tingyu, Mingshi (Ming history) - “Wen Tiren” (Biography of Wen Tiren). It
records that after Wen, a manipulating Grand Secretariat, lost the trust of the emperor
and was dismissed from his position, “Wen, who was just about to eat, dropped his spoon
and chopsticks.” HDWZK, 7936.

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Chopsticks: a cultural and culinary history

touzhu connotes that someone deliberately and forcefully puts down the
chopsticks to express a strong emotion. The History of the [Liu] Song
dynasty (Songshu), written by Shen Yue (441-5 13 ), a historian-cum-writer,
offers an early example. The dynasty was ruled by several despotic rulers
and plagued with internecine warfare. One such disturbance occurred in
476 when Prince Liu Jingsu (452-476) was involved in an attempt to
challenge the reigning emperor, a teenage boy with an erratic and violent
temper. But the challenge failed and Liu was killed in the fight. After his
death, one of his associates petitioned the court, then under a new emperor,
in defense of Liu’s political loyalty. The petitioner cited an instance to show
that Liu had been a filial son to his mother: whenever he found his mother
was not eating, he would “instantly put down his chopsticks and stop eating
too.” Then the petitioner asked: “How could such a filial son be disloyal to
the government?” In other words, a person who respected order and family
hierarchy at home would not have committed any treasonous act against the
government. Putting down the chopsticks was used to strengthen the
argument.

In later texts, touzhu is employed not only to characterize one’s love for
a family elder, but also to express compassion for others. The “Biography
of Wu Yinzhi” in the History of the fin Dynasty (Jinshu), an official history
which appeared about a century later than Shen Yue’s history, describes
the early life of Wu Yinzhi (?-4i4), a highly respected official of that
period, as follows:

When Wu Yinzhi was young, he lost his parents. As he had been quite close to
his mother, Wu often sobbed when he thought of her. Overhearing his crying,
Wu’s neighbor, Mrs. Han, a kind lady, put down her chopsticks, quit eating and
wept tears. She would then tell her son, Han Kangbo, who was then the Director
of Protocols in the government, that “When you have a chance, you should
promote a person like Wu.” Several years later, Han became the Minister of
Personnel. He followed his mother’s advice and recruited Wu into the govern-
ment [italics added].

Instead of just stating that Mrs. Han stopped eating, the text includes the
action of touzhu - her putting down the chopsticks - to emphasize how
strongly she sympathized with Wu Yinzhi’s loss.

Shen Yue, Songshu (History of the [Liu] Song dynasty) - “Jianping Xuanjianwang Hong,
zi Jingsu” {Biographies of Prince Xuanjian of Liu Hong and his son Liu Jingsu), HDWZK,
1864. Touzhu appears a total of 409 times in various texts in ZJGK.

Fang Xuanling, Jinshu (History of the Jin dynasty) - “Wu Yinzhi” (Biography of Wu
Yinzhi), HDWZK, 2341.

A pair inseparable: chopsticks as gift, metaphor and symbol 135

Li Bai (701-76Z), China’s most celebrated poet, also used touzhu to
convey and emphasize his sadness. In a well-known poem, “Difficult
Departure” (Xinglu nan), Li describes how sad he felt in bidding farewell
to his friends when he decided to leave Chang’an, the capital of the Tang
dynasty where he had stayed for a brief period. The poem begins with a
depiction of the extravagant farewell party his friends threw for him -
delicious foods on jade plates and boundless wine in golden cups. Then
Li expresses his emotion in these words: “I stopped drinking the wine
and tossed down my chopsticks because I had no appetite. I drew out my
sword, looking around, my mind was utterly absent.” Here again, the
phrase “putting down the chopsticks” is employed to accentuate Li Bai’s
sorrow at leaving behind his friends.

Yet the acts involving chopsticks do not have to be associated with
distress or angst. Rather, chopsticks can also help celebrate a happy
occasion. For such a purpose, the phrase jizhu was coined, meaning “to
strike the chopsticks” onto an object, be it a plate or a table. The purpose of
jizhu is to make some sound, or even music if the person is so trained. Yet
to do that is unusual, for etiquette forbids one to make noise with chop-
sticks. So jizhu only happens when one is overwhelmed with emotions, or
in ecstasy. Bai Juyi, a Tang poet, depicts such an occurrence in his poem.
When he met Liu Yuxi in 826, Bai described their meeting as follows:
“When I was drinking, you raised your cup and poured me more wine;
when you were singing, I struck my chopsticks on the plates to sound the
beat.” The scene seems indeed rather joyful: the two men, possibly half
drunk, sang and chatted over drinks to celebrate their reunion. It was so
delightful for them because their gathering was unexpected. Despite their
successes as accomplished poets, they were both demoted and forced out of
the Tang capital - then they ran into each other on the road!^'^

Bai Juyi tapped his chopsticks on the plates spontaneously. But such an
act is also depicted in other Tang poems, giving the impression that it was
probably more common than one would think. Was there a custom in that
period that people struck chopsticks at parties to sound the beat while they
were singing? That jizhu often occurred with singing in Tang poems seems
to suggest this.^^ In fact, records show that this phenomenon had occurred
in earlier periods. Wang Chong (27-97? ce), a Han scholar, wrote that
someone of his time used chopsticks to strike bronze bells and make music,

Li Bai, nan, ZJGK, 17. Cited m\A\x, Zhongguo zhu wenhuashi,

Jizhu first appeared in Tang texts and was found a total of thirty-seven times in the texts in
ZJGK.

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Chopsticks: a cultural and culinary history

which to him seemed odd because a mallet would be a better instrument."^”
But in the post-Han period, after trapezoidal dulcimers were introduced
to China from Central Asia, Chinese musicians played on them with
thin bamboo sticks, or chopsticks. It was said that Liu Yun (465-517), a
musician and poet in the Southern Liang dynasty, could play a zither with
either his chopsticks or his brush pen (usually made of the same material)
to entertain his audience. Before him, the Chinese zither, or qin (stringed
instrument), which is quite similar to a trapezoidal dulcimer, had been
traditionally played with the fingers.

The people in the Tang struck plates and bowls with chopsticks to make
music because during the period most of the food utensils were made of
ceramic and even porcelain, no longer bronze as in the Han and earlier
periods. Thus legend has it that Wan Baochang (P-595), an indentured
musician at the Sui dynasty court, performed this way at imperial dinners.
On one occasion, someone asked Wan about music when he was just
about to eat. For want of proper instruments. Wan instead used the chop-
sticks he was eating with to strike the bowls of various sizes, hitting all
the notes for his explanation. His musicality impressed many, including
the emperor; at the latter’s invitation. Wan composed court music, though
his status remained unchanged throughout his life. Then during the ninth
century, a court musician named Guo Daoyuan demonstrated his virtu-
osity by tapping, again with a pair of chopsticks, various types of porcelain
vessels that contained different levels of water to make beautiful music.
Obviously, the difference in size and quality of the vessels, as well as the
different levels of water in them, helped Guo to create the musical notes.
He also mastered the skill of striking those vessels with chopsticks to create
different musical tones as he intended.

Besides describing how chopsticks were used on various occasions,
historians, poets and scholars also commented on the varieties of chop-
sticks and assigned different values and meanings to them. The earliest and
perhaps the most well-known example, of course, is Han Feizi’s criticism
of King Zhou’s use of ivory chopsticks. As the case became well known,
ivory chopsticks came to be associated with a profligate and decadent lifestyle
in almost all textual references. But in real life, ironically, probably because
of the association, the rich and well born coveted ivory chopsticks, and

Wang, Lunheng- “Ganxu” (Ficticious influences), 5, ZJGK, 48.

Li, Nanshi - “Liu Yun zhuan” (Biography of Liu Yun), HDWZK, 988.

Li Yanshou, Beishi (History of the northern dynasties) - “Yishu xia” (Arts II), HDWZK,
2982. The case of Guo Daoyuan is in Liu, Zhongguo zhu wenhuashi, 197.

A pair inseparable: chopsticks as gift, metaphor and symbol 137

other ivory artifacts in general, as a way to show off their status, success and
wealth. Compared with other varieties, ivory chopsticks are more fragile, and
become cracked and stained rather easily if used with less care. Discoloring
also takes place even if one does not use them on a daily basis. All this probably
explains why ivory chopsticks were not well received from their first appear-
ance in traditional Asia.

Gold chopsticks are also delicate. In fact, pure gold chopsticks are
extremely rare because they are hard to make and, once made, they are as
impractical and unusable as ivory chopsticks. However, it seems that gold
chopsticks have a much better image, as shown in the following story.
During the Tang dynasty, per the historical record. Emperor Xuanzong
(r. 712-756) gave a pair of gold chopsticks to Song Jing (663-737), his
then prime minister, at a banquet. Known for his high integrity. Song was at
first quite reluctant to receive such an expensive gift because he did not know
what the Emperor’s intention was. Seeing his hesitation, the Emperor
explained: “I give you the pair of chopsticks not because they are made of
gold, but because they are as straight as you are [in giving me advice].” Song
then thanked the Emperor and accepted the chopsticks. As one of the first
instances of gold chopsticks recorded in history. Song Jing’s earning of a
gold pair of chopsticks was recited time and again in later texts."^^ As such, in
contrast to ivory chopsticks, gold chopsticks were endowed with a positive
moral connotation, associated with Song Jing’s upright and straightforward
character."^'* To follow the Tang example, imperial families of later dynasties
collected gold chopsticks and occasionally also gave them as gifts to reward
and commend loyal and worthy ministers. Two pairs of gold chopsticks, for
example, were found among numerous pairs of gold-plated and silver chop-
sticks in Yan Song’s (1480-1567) collection. Once a highly trusted Ming
official, Yan obtained the two pairs of gold chopsticks from the imperial
family. Zhang Juzheng (1525-1582), another powerful figure in the Ming
government, also received a pair of gold chopsticks from the Grand Empress
for his dedicated service."^^

Wang Renyu, Kaiyuan tianbao yishi {An unofficial history of Emperor Xuanzong’s reign),
available in ZJGK. From then on, jinzhu appeared 129 times in various texts in ZJGK,
mostly recitations of Song Jing’s story.

Many Chinese writers and poets associated gold chopsticks with moral uprightness,
shown in the texts in ZJGK. Korean scholars also did the same in their writings, seen in
the texts in http://db.itkc.or.kr/itkcdb/mainIndexIframe.jsp.

Few gold chopsticks have been unearthed in China yet the Palace Museum in Beijing
has collected several pairs of gold and silver chopsticks, purchased by the imperial
families of the Ming and Qing dynasties. See Liu, Zhongguo zhu wenhuashi,

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Chopsticks: a cultural and culinary history

Besides ivory and gold, other expensive materials are also used to make
chopsticks. Some indeed are as rare and valuable as ivory, such as rhinoc-
eros horn, deer antler and ebony, whereas others are expensive because
they are mostly imports, such as certain wood like mahogany and narra
(Malay padauk), which are native to Vietnam, Thailand and other parts of
Southeast Asia and less seen in East Asia. Interestingly, few of these prized
chopsticks seem to have the same immoral association as do ivory chop-
sticks. Of these valued varieties, silver chopsticks are relatively more
affordable, as the metal is more common and more malleable than other
metals. In fact, some gold chopsticks mentioned in historical texts were
more likely made of a gold-silver alloy. Although susceptible to discolor-
ing, silver chopsticks are also hardy and durable, hence popular as both
a valuable collectible and a convenient utensil. As noted previously,
archaeological digs have found many silver chopsticks in China and
Korea, attesting to their enduring popularity over the ages. Surprisingly,
perhaps because they are relatively common, mentions of silver chopsticks
are not as frequent as those of their gold and ivory counterparts in Chinese
texts. One of the earliest cases is in the Famous Sites on the West Lake
(Xihu fansheng lu), an anonymous text likely from the thirteenth century.
It records that up-market restaurants in Lin’an, the capital of the Southern
Song dynasty (1127-1279), prepared food with silver utensils - the
text mentions it perhaps because it was a bit unusual."*'’ But apparently
people did use silver chopsticks as an eating tool. In a poem, Tang Xianzu
(1550-1616), a prominent playwright of the Ming, describes a sumptu-
ous gala he attended, sighing: “It would not be hard for anyone to get
drunk [when foods] were carried by silver chopsticks and gold
spoons.””*’ Silver chopsticks, paired with gold spoons, are metaphors
for a comfortable, if also luxurious, life. But again, there is no outright
moral condemnation.

Besides the precious chopsticks mentioned above, there is another
valued material of which chopsticks have been made throughout the

428-429. Yan Song’s collection is described by Liu Zhiqin in her WanMing shilun
(Essays on Late Ming history) (Nanchang: Jiangxi gaoxiao chubanshe, 2004), 2.70.
The mention of Zhang Juzheng’s gold chopsticks is in Fu Weilin, Mingshu (Ming
history), ZJGK, 1751.

See Meng Yuanlao et ah, Xihu fansheng lu (Beijing: Zhongguo shangye chubanshe,
1982), 17. Michael Freeman also noted that high-class restaurants in the Song sup-
plied silver utensils to their customers. See his chapter, “Sung,” in Food in Chinese
Culture, 153.

Tang Xianzu, “Yebo jinchi” (A night at Jinchi), Yumingtang quanji (Complete works of
the Yuming Hall), ZJGK, 267.

A pair inseparable: chopsticks as gift, metaphor and symbol 139

ages, which is jade. From time immemorial, the Chinese, and to a certain
degree Koreans too, have developed a fascination with jade. As early as the
Paleolithic Age, (nephrite) jade was already being made into various objects
for both utilitarian and ceremonial purposes, as shown in archaeological
finds in China. Over time, jade became the “imperial gem” for the Chinese;
as ritual objects, jade artifacts (vessels, ornaments, etc.) were indispensable
in religious ceremonies at the state level. In traditional China, men and
women also habitually wore jade as personal adornments, whereas skilled
artisans crafted jade into objets d’art, which became collectibles for the rich.
In some instances, the status of a piece of high-quality jade can exceed that of
gold and silver in China. Naturally, the Chinese also made jade chopsticks.
But once formed into thin sticks, they are easily breakable, hence few real
examples of jade chopsticks have surfaced at historical sites.

In texts, however, jade chopsticks have made frequent appearances. The
History of the Southern Qi Dynasty (NanQishu), authored by Xiao Zixian
(487-537), provides an early example. In rhapsodic style, Xiao writes
about jade chopsticks as follows:

As far as I could see, emperors and kings rose on simple and modest lifestyles while
falling on debauchery and profligacy. Having followed good examples from the
past, you, our Majesty, reside in a wooden room and sleep on a whitewood bed.
When you eat, you use pottery utensils and gourd bowls. Indeed, when broken,
jade hairpins and chopsticks appear no different from the dirt and when on fire, fur
and silk clothes are as flammable as the grass."***

Here, the fragility of jade chopsticks becomes a metaphorical case for
praising as well as for remonstrating with the emperor to exhibit the
qualities of exemplary morality.

Like ivory chopsticks, jade chopsticks are delicate, less useful and less
usable in real life. But this hardly stops literary writers from using them as
allegories in their works. Around the time when Xiao Zixian mentioned
them in his history, yuzhu, or “jade chopsticks,” appeared recurrently in
literary texts, especially from the Tang. In fact, the term seems to have a
much larger appeal than the references to gold or silver chopsticks."*^ There
are two reasons for writers and poets to mention jade chopsticks. One is
to use them to symbolize good living associated with one’s career success.
A poem by Du Fu is an example: “As gold plates and jade chopsticks are

“** Xiao Zixian, NanQishu - “Cui Zusi, Liu Shanming, Su Kan, Huan Rongzu” (Biographies
of Cui Zusi, Liu Shanming, Su Kan and Huan Rongzu), ZJGK, 216.

In the texts collected in ZJGK, yuzhu (jade chopsticks) appeared 2284 times whereas
jinzhu (gold chopsticks) 129 times and yinzhu (silver chopsticks) only 54 times.

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Chopsticks: a cultural and culinary history

nowhere to find, let me just taste the cherry and live my new life.” After he
relocated from the Tang capital Chang’an to Chengdu, Du received some
red cherries from his new neighbor. The friendly gesture of his neighbor
reminded Du of the life he used to have in the capital, for back then
he received cherries from the imperial court. The “gold plates and jade
chopsticks” thus stand for the successful life Du once had enjoyed as a
government official.

The other reason for the frequent appearance of jade chopsticks is that
as jade is usually light-colored or transparent, once formed jade sticks
look like tears flowing down one’s cheeks. As such, yuzhu conjures up the
image of someone crying. Chinese writers and poets often employed the
phrase to describe a weeping woman - a widow missing her late husband
or an unhappy lady-in-waiting in the imperial harem. One poem in the
New Songs at the Jade Terrace (Yutai xinyong), an important poetry
collection probably by Xu Ling (507-583), depicts an unhappy court
lady who saw her youth slip away as she waited for the prince: “gold
hairpins were hanging loosely on the hair, just as her tears were flowing
down onto the chest like jade chopsticks.” In another poem, a wife is
crying over her separation with her husband serving in the army: “Staring
at Venus in the sky, my eyebrows scrunched together; overwhelmed with
sorrow, my tears flowed down like jade chopsticks.” Li Bai, the Tang
poet, also used the metaphor to describe a sad and lonely woman. He
portrays a scene where the woman is writing a letter to her lover, express-
ing her longing for their reunion. Then she looks in a mirror, seeing that
her “tears were like two jade chopsticks, dropping down from her cheeks
onto the mirror. Instead of stating that she cried, Li suggests that the
woman did not realize she was shedding tears until she saw herself in the
mirror: her tears were already rolling down in two lines like jade
chopsticks.

Not only can the color and shape of chopsticks be described literally and
metaphorically, but their size and length can also be used in measurement.
Du Fu, for instance, once praises the chives he received from a friend in
such words: “A fresh bunch of green, their scapes are round and tall
like jade chopsticks. Over two centuries previously, Jia Sixie in his
Essential Techniques for the Peasantry also compares the length of noodles
to chopsticks. When he describes the height and shape of plants and

Du Fu, Du Gongbuji {Works of Du Fu), ZJGK, 195.

Xu Ling (?), ed., Yutai xinyong^ ZJGK, 46 &: 52.

Li Bai, Li Taibai ji (Poems of Li Bai), ZJGK, 143. Du, Du Bongbu ji, ZJGK, 107.

A pair inseparable: chopsticks as gift, metaphor and symbol 141

vegetables, he frequently measures them against those of chopsticks for
comparison, presumably to make his text easily understandable to readers,
or the peasantry. Over time, as chopsticks became more and more a day-
to-day item, such comparisons also became increasingly prevalent and
were made quite creatively and humorously. One interesting, perhaps
bizarre, case is in the 'Water Margin, a Ming novel. Instead of comparing
jade chopsticks to tears, which by then had become an archaic usage, the
author writes, perhaps for exaggerating a peculiar face, that someone’s
ears resemble a pair of “jade chopsticks” and his eyes bulge like two
“golden bells.”’’

In sum, ever since they became a daily utensil in ancient China, chop-
sticks have been a beloved subject for writers, poets and philosophers.
While scholars philosophize on their characteristics to offer political
wisdom on sound governance, writers employ them as an effective meta-
phor to aid their descriptions of sadness, anxiety and astonishment.
Chopsticks also appear in scientific and technical writings, as they are
easy examples for approximating length, size and shape for illustration.
Yet poets seem to have favored them the most. From ancient times to
more or less this day, Chinese poets have continually written about
chopsticks, commenting on their utility and characteristics and exploring
their embedded cultural meanings, real and imagined alike. Some exam-
ples are given here to conclude this chapter.

Cheng Lianggui, a little known poet, arguably might be the first to have
composed a poem specifically on chopsticks. It reads:

Hardworking are the bamboo chopsticks,
always the first to taste, bitter or sweet;

Though nothing is eaten,

they love to serve, back and forth.’*’

Chopsticks here are personified as a diligent and selfless worker, a popular
and recurrent theme in poems about chopsticks. Yuan Mei (1716-1797), a
well-known writer and connoisseur in the Qing, paints a similar image in
his poem, with sympathy and a bit of humor:

Busy as you are,

taking and giving for the mouths of others;

Jia, Qimin yaoshu, http://zh. wikisource. org/zh/^K^iii|j, juan 9, for example, when he
compares the length of noodles to chopsticks; other comparisons are made throughout
the book.

” Shi Nan’an, Shuihu zhuan, ZJGK, 113.

Cited in http://bbs. culture. 163. comfobs/gufeng/i7044i342.html.

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Chopsticks: a cultural and culinary history

Having tasted all, sour and salty,
can you savor anything yourself?^^

Another popular theme about chopsticks is their straightness, a quality
with which a person’s moral character is often compared and commended.
During the early Tang, a writer was already praising the quality of metal
fire-sticks, or huozhu, as both “straight and steady,” expressing his high
hopes for such behavior in government officials. Two centuries later,
Zhou Chi (?-rzi3), who served under the Yuan dynasty, elaborates these
qualities in his poem:

Shaped like shorter arrows,
you are painted in solid red.

Lining up your heads, you work together,
as one cannot leave the other.

In rest, you are next to the plates,
at work, you are held by palm and fingers.

Having picked out bones from steamed pork,
then you draw noodles in oiled scallions.

Badmouthed often in use,

stay straight, you never let your work lapse.

I wish one acts like you,

in spite of the sorrow wider than a river.

While offering sympathy for the chopsticks’ hard and unselfish work,
here Zhou Chi also compares their experience with his own in the
government. Probably an upright official, Zhou might have offered his
straightforward advice, only to be “badmouthed” by others. But encour-
aged and inspired by the exemplary role chopsticks play in life, he hopes
to “stay straight” like them, not letting his work and his moral standard
slacken and slip.

Since this chapter begins with a love story, perhaps it is fitting to end it
with a love poem. The “inseparableness” of chopsticks has turned them into
a much-loved object while writing love poems, past and present alike. Some
of the poems are carved on the husband-wife chopsticks, not only to register
the couple’s love but also to wish for their shared happiness. The poem
below was written by a contemporary Chinese poet, and appeared in
an online blog. It is somewhat unpolished, but touching and beautiful

Yuan Mei, Suiyuan shihua {Stories of poems at Suiyuan), ZJGK, 45.

Yang Qia, “Tie huozhu fu” (Rhapsody on iron [chop]sticks), see Liu, Zhongguo zhu
wenhuashi, zz6.

Liu, Zhongguo zhu wenhuashi^ 294.

Some of the poems are available in Lan, Kuaizi, buzhishi kuaizi, 193-246.

A pair inseparable: chopsticks as gift, metaphor and symbol 143

nevertheless. The author comments on almost all the characteristics one can
think of associated with chopsticks use - their sameness in length,
their togetherness at work, their role in tasting and carrying the food, and
even their “quietness” as objects - and uses them effectively to depict a
couple’s love:

Our lengths are the same,

Just as the sameness of our hearts;

Bitter or sweet,

we spend our life together.

Having tasted it all,

We always live side by side.

One knows the other;

our intimacy is so seamless,

no space even for a single word.*^'

http://bbs.culture.163.com/bbs/gufeng/170441342.html.

“Bridging” food cultures in the world

Real Chinese food is delicate and rare; supposed to be tasted rather
than eaten, for the number of courses is stupendous. If really to the manner
born, you reach into one general dish with your chop-sticks; it is a clean and
delicate way to dine. Unless you go in for too much bird’s nest soup and
century-old eggs, the prices are reasonable. Bird’s nest soup is delicious, but
anyone can have my share of the heirloom hen fruit.

Harry Carr, Los Angeles: City of Dreams (New York, 1935)

If you do not take your courage in hand, click your chopsticks together a few
times to satisfy sceptical Chinese dinners that you can operate them, and
plunge head first, so to speak, into real Chinese food, you cannot say that you
have understood and savoured the taste of China.

George McDonald, China (Thomas Cook guide book)

(Peterborough, 2.002.)

Chopsticks are pronounced the same as “bridge” in Japanese, as mentioned
previously. Since the mid-nineteenth century, after Asia became incorpo-
rated into the modern world, the eating tool has indeed played such a part in
bridging food cultures in that continent and those around the globe. As
Chinese food moves from “China to Chinatown,” to borrow the title
of J. A. G. Roberts’s recent book, chopsticks have also traveled along the
pathway to regions outside the chopsticks cultural sphere of Asia. For a
non-Asian customer, using chopsticks to convey food, perhaps, is the culmi-
nation and crystallization of the dining experience in a Chinese/Asian restau-
rant. To cater to and cultivate such interest, many Chinese restaurant owners
also use “chopsticks” to name their restaurants outside China, for example
“Golden Chopsticks” and “Bamboo Chopsticks” are popular.^ Of course.

^ The finding is drawn on a keyword search in Google.

144

“Bridging” food cultures in the world

145

chopsticks are not only found in Chinese restaurants, they are also provided
for customers at Japanese, Korean, Vietnamese and sometimes Thai restau-
rants. As such, chopsticks use adds to the global appeal of Asian foods.
If chopsticks are a “bridge,” they bring together food cultures not only
between Asians and non-Asians but also among Asians.

In the modern world, chopsticks have a global image because they are
readily noticeable for anyone traveling to the chopsticks cultural sphere in
Asia. From the sixteenth century when Europeans began visiting Asia, they
quickly discovered that chopsticks use was a unique way of eating food
among the Chinese and their neighbors and duly recorded the custom in
their journals and travelogues. One of the earliest mentions of chopsticks
appears in the journal written by Galeote Pereira, a Portuguese mercenary
who went to South China via India between 1539 and 1547. Pereira’s
account updated Europeans’ knowledge about China after Marco Polo’s
legendary book of the thirteenth century. (Marco Polo, incidentally, did
not to mention the Chinese use of chopsticks, just as he omitted their
drinking of tea.) Pereira finds the Chinese dietary custom both clean and
civil, for their use of chopsticks. He writes:

All the people of China, are wont to eat their meat sitting on stools at high tables
as we do, and that very cleanly, although they use neither table-cloths nor
napkins. Whatsoever is set down upon the board, is first carved, before that it
be brought in: they feed with two sticks, refraining from touching their meat with
their hands, even as we do with forks, for the which respect, they less do need any
table-cloths.’’'

Since chopsticks users did not touch food with their hands, the Europeans
noticed, Asians did not even need to wash their hands before meals. Louis
Erois (153 2-1597), a Portuguese Jesuit, and Louren^o Mexia, his traveling
companion to Japan at the time, came up with a list of things they observed
that differentiated Asians from Europeans. Asians, or the Japanese whom
they encountered in this case, not only ate rice instead of bread, but their
eating habits also diverged: “We wash our hands at the beginning and at
the end of the meal; the Japanese, who do not touch their food with their
hands, do not find it necessary to wash them.”^ This was because, observed
Erancesco Carletti (1573-1636), an Italian merchant visiting Japan in the
later part of the century, “With these two sticks [chopsticks], the Japanese
are able to fill their mouths with marvelous swiftness and agility. They can

^ Boxer, South China in the Sixteenth Century^ 14.

^ Quoted in Donald F. Lach, Japan in the Eyes of Europe: The Sixteenth Century {Chicago:
University of Chicago Press, 1968), 688.

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Chopsticks: a cultural and culinary history

pick up any piece of food, no matter how tiny it is, without ever soiling
their hands.

Thus, when first encountering chopsticks, Europeans were quite curious
and intrigued (Plate 17). They found dining with chopsticks neat and clean,
for the food would not dirty the hands. This might suggest that while forks
and knives were believed to be already in use among Europeans by that time,
there were still occasions when they transported foods with fingers, hence
the need for napkins and tablecloths. In those early days of discovery,
Matteo Ricci (r552-r6ro), the founding figure of the Jesuit mission to
China, gave the most positive impression of chopsticks use. Compared
with the accounts of his contemporaries, Ricci provides the most detailed
descriptions of the dietary customs in Ming China for Europeans. While
others simply called chopsticks “two sticks,” he describes how the eating
device was made: “These sticks are made of ebony or of ivory or some other
durable material that is not easily stained, and the ends which touch the food
are usually burnished with gold or silver.” Ricci also comments that in
China banquets were “both frequent and very ceremonious,” because the
Chinese considered the banquet the “highest expression of friendship. ” And
at banquets, observes Ricci,

They [the Chinese] do not use forks or spoons or knives for eating, but rather
polished sticks, about a palm and a half long, with which they are very adept in
lifting any kind of food to their mouths, without touching it with their fingers. The
food is brought to the table already cut into small pieces, unless it be something
that is soft, such as cooked eggs or fish and the like, which can be easily separated
with the sticks.^

Though impressed by their usefulness, Matteo Ricci did not mention
whether he had tried to dine with chopsticks and, if he had, whether he
used them as adeptly as did the Chinese. Indeed, of the various accounts
left by European missionaries and other travelers from the sixteenth to
the nineteenth centuries, few recorded if they were curious and tempted
enough to try to use chopsticks, despite the otherwise quite adventurous
spirit displayed in their accounts. The difficulty in wrapping their fingers
around chopsticks and learning to use them might have thwarted their
attempts.

Yet to some Europeans, while the ability to use chopsticks was striking,
this eating style remained unappealing, for it was seen at times as

^ Quoted in Giblin, From Hand to Mouthy 44.

^ Matteo Ricci, China in the Sixteenth Century: The Journals of Matthew Ricci: 1^8^-1610,
trans. Louis J. Gallagher (New York: Random House, 1953), 66, 64.

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unrefined. Martin de Rada (1533-1578), a Spanish Augustinian who went
to Asia from Mexico and landed first in the Philippines and later in South
China, also noticed that the Chinese ate meals with chopsticks, which
rendered tablecloths and napkins unnecessary. Yet unlike Galeote
Pereira and Matteo Ricci, de Rada is less impressed by the custom. “At
the beginning of a meal they eat meat without bread,” he writes, “and
afterwards instead of bread they eat three or four dishes of cooked rice,
which they likewise eat with their chopsticks, even though somewhat
hoggishly.”® It appeared hoggish to him perhaps because the Chinese lifted
the rice bowl and pushed the rice into the mouth, as a way to prevent rice
grains from falling from the chopsticks.

Peter Mundy (1600-1667), an English traveler who went to South
China from India in the seventeenth century, was equally impressed with
the skillful handling of chopsticks by the Chinese he encountered. Yet his
description of the dining method also smacks of disapproval. In his
multivolume book, which details his trips to several Asian regions as
well as to continental Europe, Mundy provides an illustration, portray-
ing how the Chinese used chopsticks to eat a meal, in which the man
raised the bowl close to his mouth and thrust the food into it hastily.
Mundy’s description goes as follows:

Hee [a boatman on the Grand Canal] taketh the stickes (which are about a foote
longe) beetweene his Fingers and with them hee taketh uppe his Meat, being first
cut smalle, as saltporcke. Fish, etts., with which they relish their Rice (it being their
common Foode). I say first taking upp a bitt of the Meatte, hee presently applies to
his Mouth a smalle porcelane [bowl] with sodden Rice. Hee thrusts. Grammes and
stuffes it full of the said Rice with the Chopsticks in exceeding hasty Manner until it
will hold No more. . . . The better sort eat after the same Manner, butt they sitt at
tables as we Doe.

Mundy also mentions that “Then brought they us some henne cut in
smalle peeces and Fresh porcke Don in like Manner, giving us
Choppsticks to eat our Meat, butt wee knew not how to use them, soe
imployed our Fingers.”^ Though amazed by the deftness of the Chinese
in using chopsticks, which he was unable, possibly also unwilling,
to imitate, Mundy did not approve of their eating style in general; he
was a bit surprised by the fact that the upper-class Chinese dined in the
same style.

^ Boxer, South China in the Sixteenth Century, 187.

^ Richard Carnac Temple, ed., The Travels of Peter Mundy, in Europe and Asia, i6o8-i66y
(Liechtenstein: Kraus Reprint, 1967), vol. 3, 194-195. The illustration is on 165.

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Chopsticks: a cultural and culinary history

Though unimpressed by the Chinese use of chopsticks, Peter Mundy
might be the first Englishman who recorded “chopsticks” as the name for
the utensil. (“Chopsticks” also appeared in Martin de Rada’s earlier
account but it was a translation; de Rada might have simply used “pal-
illos” or “sticks” as chopsticks are called in Spanish today.) Could
Mundy claim the credit for coining the term in English? It is possible
but it is also likely that someone else did it before him. The word’s
etymology reveals that “chopsticks” are pidgin Chinese English, com-
bining “chop” (“quick” in Cantonese) as a prefix with “sticks.” It was
probably the result of some collaboration between an English person and
a Cantonese-Chinese. When Mundy described their use, it sounded as if
the term already existed in his time.

About three decades later, William Dampier (1651-1715), another
English traveler who circumnavigated the world three times, mentions
chopsticks in his Voyages and Descriptions (1699): “They [the utensil]
are called by the English seamen Chopsticks.” It was during the course
of the seventeenth century, therefore, that “chopsticks” became coined
in English to refer to the dining tool. By comparison, the term “sticks”
has persisted in other European languages. Chopsticks, for example,
are known as baguettes in Erench and palillos in Spanish (as in de
Rada’s account), both meaning “sticks.” In German, chopsticks are
called Eflstdbchen, or “eating sticks,” whereas in Italian, bacchette
per il cibo, and in Russian, palochki dlia edy, both meaning “sticks for
food.” An interesting exception is that in Portuguese, chopsticks are
referred to as hashi, the same as in Japanese, reminding one of the
Jesuit mission in Asia back in the sixteenth century.

Erom the eighteenth century, buoyed by the growth of capitalism,
Europeans’ overall interest in Asia increased notably, as the continent
was perceived as a potential market for manufactured European goods.
Yet their interest in Asian civilization and culture, and in the custom
of chopsticks use in particular, declined. Eord George Macartney
(1737-1806), the English diplomat who led an official embassy to pry
open China’s doors from the tight grip of the Qing dynasty (1644-
1911), expressed the wish that the Chinese would soon learn to adopt
the use of forks and knives instead. While in China, Macartney was
greeted by two Chinese officials, or “mandarins,” whom he described
as “intelligent men, frank and easy in their address, and communicative
in their discourse.” Upon his invitation, he wrote, “they sat down to
dinner with us, and though at first a little embarrassed by our knives
and forks, soon got over the difficulty, and handled them with notable

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dexterity and execution upon some of the good things which they had
brought us.”*^

If Macartney was complimentary about the Chinese mandarins, his
compliment perhaps had more to do with the fact that, in his mind, the
English eating custom was superior, or more civilized; as such, he hoped
the Chinese would follow suit. Compared with his fellow countryman
Peter Mundy over a century earlier. Macartney was little interested in,
much less impressed by, the fact that the Chinese, and the Manchus
(whom he called Tartars), were able to employ chopsticks to transport
food. Contrary to the previous missionaries’ accounts. Macartney made
the following observation about the dietary practice in Qing China:

At their meals they use no towels, napkins, table-cloths, flat plates, glasses, knives
nor forks, but help themselves with their fingers, or with their chopsticks, which are
made of wood or ivory, about six inches long, round and smooth, and not very
cleanly.

In other words, the Chinese eating customs were less civilized as they
did not use a set of cutlery and other accessories as Europeans did. Even
if they did use chopsticks, these were not so clean. “Our knives and forks,
spoons,” Macartney wrote with hope and pride, “and a thousand little
trifles of personal conveniency were singularly acceptable to everybody,
and will probably become soon of considerable demand . .

Lord Macartney failed in his mission to open China’s doors to
European trade; his requests were rejected outright by the Qing Emperor
Qianlong (r. 1735-1796) because the Emperor upheld the traditional
notion that China was the “Middle Kingdom” and the hub of all civiliza-
tions in the world. However, only about half a century after Lord
Macartney’s failed visit, the English succeeded in forcing the Qing dynasty
to come to terms with them. In the aftermath of the Qing’s defeat in the
Opium War (1839-184Z), the dynasty signed the Treaty of Nanjing,
which for the first time allowed Europeans and Americans to reside and
trade in China. A watershed moment, the Opium War ushered in a new era
in history in that European and Asian cultures were to come into contact
with each other on a much more frequent basis.

Yet Macartney’s hope that the Chinese, or East Asians in general, were
to turn to the use of forks and knives as did Europeans failed to materialize.

* George Macartney, An Embassy to China: Being the Journal Kept by Lord Macartney
during His Embassy to the Emperor Ch’ien-lung, ed. J. L. Cranmer-Byng

(London: Longmans, republished, 1972.), 71.

^ Ibid., 225-226.

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Chopsticks: a cultural and culinary history

In fact, through the nineteenth century, as more and more European
merchants went to China, perhaps swayed by the hospitality and insistence
of their local hosts, they found themselves more and more attracted and
adaptive to Asian food and the Asian dining style. Indeed, just as Peter
Mundy had been asked by the Chinese to learn to use chopsticks. Western
merchants in nineteenth-century China often had a similar experience.
Prior to the outbreak of the Opium War, foreign merchants needed to
sell their merchandise through their Chinese counterparts. As such, they
worked with Chinese merchants and officials. W. C. Hunter, an American
businessman, recalled that he and his fellow merchants on occasion
were treated to “chopsticks dinners” by their Chinese partners. As the
name indicates, these dinners were in the Chinese style, or as Hunter puts
it, “no foreign element would be found in it.” Since “these feasts,” in
Hunter’s words, “were very enjoyable,” one could imagine that he and
other Westerners probably also tried using chopsticks to eat the food.^°
After the Treaty of Nanjing, China became more and more accessible to
Westerners, who traveled there from both Europe and America. When
invited by the locals to use chopsticks, some adventurous travellers began
to experiment with the eating device. Laurence Oliphant (1829-1888), a
British author, traveler and diplomat who served as private secretary to the
Earl of Elgin, the British plenipotentiary to China in the mid-nineteenth
century, was an early example. Oliphant records such an experience in
these words:

We refreshed ourselves after the fatigues of our exploration at a Chinese restau-
rant, where I made my first experience in Chinese cookery, and, in spite of
the novelty of the implements, managed, by the aid of chopsticks, to make a
very satisfactory repast off eggs a year old preserved in clay, sharks’ fins and
radishes pared and boiled into a thick soup, beche de mer or sea-slugs, shrimps
made into a paste with sea-chestnuts, bamboo roots, and garlic, rendered
piquant by the addition of soy and sundry other pickles and condiments, and
washed down with warm samshu in minute cups. Dishes and plates were all on
the smallest possible scale, and pieces of square brown paper served the purpose
of napkins.''

As these words reveal, Oliphant obviously enjoyed the exotic Chinese
dishes at the restaurant. Moreover, he appeared quite delighted that he
managed to employ chopsticks in transporting them. So much so that

W. C. Hunter, The “Fan Kwae” at Canton: Before Treaty Days, 182J-1844 (London:
Kegan Paul, Trench, & Co., 1882; reprinted in Taipei, 1965), 40-41.

Laurence Oliphant, Elgin’s Mission to China and Japan, with an introduction by
J. J. Gerson (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1970), vol. i, 67-68.

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151

when he had another dining experience in China, invited that time by a
Chinese local official, Oliphant makes the following comments, in which
he states that the Chinese eating custom was “more elegant,” as chopsticks
were “refined” whereas the knife and fork were “rude”:

I was glad to have an opportunity at Shanghai of renewing my acquaintance with
the Taoutai [Daotai, Intendant], whom I found to be a person of considerable
intelligence and enlightenment. One day I dined with him, and partook not of a
flimsy refection, such as those usually offered on such occasions, but of a good
substantial repast, beginning with bird’s-nest soup, followed by shark’s fins,
beche de mer, and other indescribable delicacies, as entrees, then mutton and
turkey, as pieces de resistance, carved at a side-table in a civilised manner, and
handed round cut up into mouthfuls, so that the refined chopstick replaced
throughout the rude knife and fork of the West. We may certainly adopt with
advantage the more elegant custom of China in this respect; and as we have
ceased to carve the joints in dishes, make the next step in advance, and no longer
cut up slices of them in our plates.'^

In contrast to Lord Macartney, Laurence Oliphant perhaps was one of
the earliest Europeans who considered the Chinese use of chopsticks a
more civilized eating manner. He too was impressed by the fact that the
Chinese prepared food items in bitable morsels, readily delivered by
chopsticks.

It is hard to imagine, though, that Oliphant was the only Westerner then
who took on the challenge of dining with chopsticks in China. In 193 5, an
American woman named Corrinne Lamb published one of the first recipe
books on Chinese cookery in English, The Chinese Festive Board. While
offering fifty recipes of Chinese dishes. Lamb, who apparently had exten-
sive traveling experience in China, also comments aptly and candidly on
the dietary customs and eating etiquette as well as a number of proverbs
relating to food and food culture in the country. At the outset of the book,
by way of proving her expertise on Chinese food. Lamb corrects some of
the well-known misconceptions possibly held by her readers, such as that
rice was the only grain staple for the Chinese and that rat was consumed by
them on a daily basis. She points out that in addition to rice, which was
eaten by two fifths of the people, wheat, barley and millet were staple
grains for the rest of the population. As for rat, she writes that the Chinese
in South China did eat snake, but not rat.

Like Oliphant and others. Lamb notes that all food served in China was
previously “sliced, carved, minced or reduced to proportions which need

12.

Ibid., 215.

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Chopsticks: a cultural and culinary history

no further dissection.” As a result, chopsticks alone become quite sufficient
in carrying food items, and effective. Lamb describes:

In the first instance, the service of food involves none of the complications of
foreign table etiquette. What we know as chopsticks are really called in China
k’uai tzu [kuaizi], which, in turn, may be freely translated as “quick little boys.”
This term is applied to them on account of their nimbleness and speed when once
in action and it is a most appropriate name. One pair of k’uai tzu constitutes the
entire cutlery equipment per person, unless by some chance a small porcelain
spoon is available or called for to contend with a soup or other thin liquid.
One bowl per person completes the table service. Many weary American house-
wives might well wish that their dishwashing worries could be reduced to such a
minimum. Table linen there is none, thus eliminating another unnecessary
itern.'^

From her enthusiastic endorsement, it is easy to see that Lamb herself
might have mastered the skill of using chopsticks, just as she did of cooking
the Chinese dishes described in her book. Using chopsticks to eat Chinese
food, indeed, was recommended for the patrons of Chinese restaurants in
the United States, for “it is a clean and delicate way to dine,” so stated a
193 5 pamphlet about the city of Los Angeles.^"*

What is interesting is that Corrinne Lamb’s enthusiasm for chopsticks
use came at a time when the Chinese themselves began to reflect critically
on the dietary custom. Through the course of the twentieth century,
the Chinese made consistent efforts to modernize their society. Some
of the Chinese took the name “Sick Man of the East,” by which their
country was disparagingly referred to at the time, to heart and tried
to improve the health of their compatriots. In Japan, similar attempts
had been made from the late nineteenth century. For instance, the
idea of “hygiene” was first introduced to Japan and dubbed eisei
by the Japanese. Borrowing an existing term from ancient Chinese
texts, these two Chinese compound words connote the meaning of
“guarding life,” which emphasizes the importance of hygiene for
people. The Chinese have also used them, pronounced iveisheng, to
discuss the idea of “hygiene,” despite some reservations.^'’ It seems
that they had strong reasons to adopt the Japanese translation because

Corrinne Lamb, The Chinese Festive Board (Hong Kong: Oxford University Press, 1985;
originally published in 1935), 14-15-
Quoted in Roberts, China to Chinatown^ 151.

See Ruth Rogaski, Hygienic Modernity: Meanings of Health and Disease in Treaty-Port
China (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2004), 104-164; and Sean Hsiang-lin Lei,
"Moral Community of Weisheng: Contesting Hygiene in Republican China,” East Asian
Science, Technology and Society: An International Journal, 3:4 (2009), 475-504.

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153

during the 1930s a tuberculosis crisis occurred in China, making “guarding
life” an imminent task. Both Chinese and Western medical professionals
attributed the quick spread of the disease in the country partly to the
unhealthy daily habits among the Chinese. One of those habits, lo and
behold, was that “Food is taken from a common bowl, with the chopsticks
conveying it to the individual mouth.

In fact, during the early twentieth century, the Chinese needed to
combat not only tuberculosis, but also other gastrointestinal diseases.
To prevent the spread of these epidemics, Chinese medical professionals
advocated changing the daily habits among their compatriots. This
amounted to a challenging task in that cultural traditions and social
customs cannot be transformed overnight, for it often takes a long time
for them to develop and be accepted among the populace. Granted, the
Chinese, and other Asians in general, traditionally were conscientious
about the food they consumed; this was also the general impression
many Westerners had developed while traveling to the continent. In
Chinese tradition, food was regarded as having medicinal effects on the
human body, hence deserving high attention. This idea was also accepted
and practiced among Koreans, the Japanese, the Vietnamese and other
Asians. Yet at the same time, observed some Western missionaries, the
Chinese lacked knowledge of “sanitary science,” even though their lifestyle
was by and large healthful. Indeed, though the Chinese were aware that
certain diseases could be contagious and had developed various measures
to prevent their spread, they were less concerned about food-sharing as a
source of such contagion.

Several years after Corrinne Lamb praised the Chinese use of chopsticks
in carrying food, W. H. Auden (1907-1973) and Christopher Isherwood
(1904-1986), two British writers, went to wartime China in 1938 and
offered a rather colorful description of how primary chopsticks were for
the Chinese:

One’s first sight of a table prepared for a Chinese meal hardly suggests the idea
of eating, at all. It looks rather as if you were sitting down to a competition in

Quoted in Sean Hsiang-lin Lei, “Habituating Individuality: The Framing of Tuberculosis
and Its Material Solutions in Republican China,” Bulletin of the History of Medicine, 84:2
(Summer 2010), 262.

Ka-che Yip, Health and National Reconstruction in Nationalist China (Ann Arbor:
Association for Asian Studies, Inc., 1995), 10.

Ro%as\si,Hygienic Modernity , 103. And Angela Ki Che Leung, “The Evolution of the Idea
of Chuanran Contagion in Imperial China,” Health and Hygiene in Chinese East Asia, eds.
Leung Sc Furth, 25-50.

154

Chopsticks: a cultural and culinary history

water-colour painting. The chopsticks, lying side by side, resemble paint-brushes.
The paints are represented by little dishes of sauces, red, green, and brown. The
tea-bowls, with their lids, might well contain paint-water. There is even a kind of
tiny paint-rag, on which the chopsticks can be wiped.

These vivid words show that Auden and Isherwood were quite impressed
by the use of chopsticks - they also write that while in China, they tried
using chopsticks in conveying food, declining the knives and forks offered
to them by their hosts. These two English authors also liked the custom
that before a meal, everyone was offered a hot moistened towel to wipe
their hands and faces, which in their recommendation should be intro-
duced to the West.^^

However, their beautiful depiction of the Chinese dietary practice is not
so flattering as it appears on first sight. One thing is apparent: as everyone
competes with each other for getting food, little concern is shown about
passing their germs on to the communal dishes with their chopsticks.
Corrinne Lamb also observes in her book that in China once food is put
on the table, it is “prey to all present.” “There ensues,” she continues, “a
simultaneous dive of chopsticks into the various dishes, the diners suiting
their own fancy as to what they desire to concentrate upon after liberal
sampling of the various offerings.”^”

Thanks to the education by medical professionals and government
interventions, awareness of the importance of personal and public hygiene
has been on the rise in modern China. This awareness helped draw atten-
tion to the drawbacks of the age-long practice of communal eating. Wang
Li (1900-1986), a renowned Chinese linguist, coined a term jinye jiaoliu
(exchange of saliva) to describe the fondness of the Chinese for sharing
food dishes in the communal eating style. Using gallows humor, he writes
as follows:

The Chinese are harmonious towards one another, thanks to the exchange of saliva
[in dining]. While there are some who have advocated eating separately, there are
always others who would like to share food as much as possible. For instance, when
a soup is just brought on to the table, a host often first uses his own spoon to stir and
sip it. He will do the same to a dish, with his chopsticks. As for inviting guests to eat,
the host does not seem to care if he exchanges his saliva with all the others. . . .
Before I sat down at the table, I happened to notice that there was too much saliva
in the host’s mouth. When he opened his mouth to speak or eat, I could see a web of

W. H. Auden & Christopher Isherwood, Journal to a War (New York: Random House,
1939)) 4°- Hot moistened towels are still offered to customers in restaurants in today’s
China.

“ Lamb, Chinese Festive Board, 15.

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155

saliva forming between the two rows of his teeth. He then used his chopsticks,
which had been in and out of the web many times, to clasp and deliver foodstuff
into my plate, all deferentially. I could not believe my own tongue: Why did the
same sauteed chicken which had been so tasteful when I put it in my mouth by
myself become so distasteful when it was delivered by his chopsticks? I must be
really unworthy of the host’s hospitality.’^'

Full of sarcasm, Wang’s description was perhaps not completely divorced
from reality in China; it is likely that his description draws on many of his
personal experiences. Indeed, before the custom of using serving chop-
sticks and spoons was introduced to China in the late twentieth century, it
had been normal for the Chinese, for showing their kinship, hospitality
and generosity, to grasp food contents from the communal dishes and
deliver them to others, be they younger family members or invited guests.
Yet attacks on such communal dining habits had begun already in the early
part of the century. Wang Li’s sarcastic criticism of how the Chinese
“enjoyed” exchanging saliva is but one example. Many published essays
criticized the age-old yet now deemed unhygienic customs practiced
among the Chinese. Some identified “communal eating” (gongshi) as the
number one unhygienic habit on the list, whereas others have sought ways
to modify it, such as urging the use of serving chopsticks (gongkuai or
“public chopsticks” in Chinese).

Yet to forsake communal eating was by no means easy; as discussed in
Chapter 5, sharing food with chopsticks in a common bowl or a pot, such
as eating a hot pot, had become an entrenched dining habit in China and
beyond. And communal eating remains in practice among many Chinese,
Vietnamese and Koreans today. When invited to a familymeal in Vietnam,
for instance, everyone is given a pair of chopsticks to eat the dishes
common for all; it remains quite rare for the Vietnamese to use serving
chopsticks. Rice, however, is served into one’s own bowl by a female
member of the host family using a serving spoon. In Korea, a Chinese
visitor finds with surprise that some people use both their spoons and
chopsticks to partake of food items in the communal dishes at public

Wang Li, “Quancai” (Feeding), www.hanfu.hk/forum/archiver/Ptid-1695.html.

Zhang Yichang, “Guoren buweisheng de exi” (The unhygienic habits of my country-
men), Xinyi yu shehui jikan (Journal of new medicine and society), 2 (1934), 156. Tao
Xingzhi (1891-1946), a modern educator, asked students in the schools he founded in
the 1930S to learn the practice of using a serving pair of chopsticks. Lan, Kuaizi, buzhishi
kuaizi, 173.

Nir Avieli, “Eating Lunch and Recreating the Universe: Food and Cosmology in Hoi An,
Vietnam,” Everyday Life in Southeast Asia, eds. Kathleen M. Adams &c Kathleen
A. Gillogly (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2011), 218.

156

Chopsticks: a cultural and culinary history

gatherings. He notes that on such occasions the Chinese are more likely to
use only chopsticks to take food from the common dishes, and apply the
utensil rather carefully.^"*

So, a compromise had to be made. Some medical professionals attemp-
ted it in the early twentieth century, before the Chinese public was edu-
cated about the health risks involved in communal eating. In the late
1910S, Wu Liande (1879-1960), a Cambridge-trained doctor, introduced
what he called a “hygienic dining table,” otherwise known as the “lazy
Susan,” to the Chinese, claiming that it was his invention. The most
hygienic way to consume a meal, Wu admitted, is to eat individually -
everyone only eats the foods served (or self-served using a serving utensil)
to his/her own plates or bowls. But this was not the best way to enjoy a
Chinese meal, he argued. Then the other way was to let everyone pick up
food items in common plates, but ask them to employ a pair of serving
chopsticks to first bring the food to his/her rice bowls. To do so, however,
could be cumbersome and confusing (some may just forget about switch-
ing between the personal and serving chopsticks), killing the fun of eating.
Using a lazy Susan, Wu believed, presented a better solution, for it could
balance the traditional desire among the Chinese to sample various dishes
at a meal and their newly acquired interest in hygienic dining. More
specifically, according to Wu’s direction, one should place either a serving
spoon or a pair of serving chopsticks next to every dish on the platform,
reminding diners to use them as they rotate the platform and pick up food
from the dishes. That is, using the lazy Susan this way allows diners to
continue sharing and savoring the variety of the dishes but at the same
time, it stops them from passing their saliva on to the common dishes.

In 197Z US President Richard Nixon paid a historic visit to China.
As this was an epoch-making event, it was well covered in the Western
media, allowing the outside world to take a peek into how the Chinese
had lived on the mainland after the Communists took over power in
1949. The coverage included, interestingly, details of how President
Nixon prepared for his trip, such as how he practiced using chopsticks.^'’
The time he spent on practicing seems to have paid off, as shown in
Margaret Macmillan’s description of the banquet the Chinese hosted for
the visit:

Tang Libiao, “Han’guo de shili” (Eating etiquette in Korea), Dongfang shiliao yu baojian
(Food medicine and health care in the East), 9 (2006), 8-9.

Lei, “Habituating Individuality,” 262-265.

Ann M. Morrison, “When Nixon Met Mao,” Book Review, Time, December 3, 2006.

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157

The band played the Chinese and US national anthems, and the banquet began.
The Nixons and top-ranking Americans sat with Chou En-lai [Zhou Enlai, China’s
Premier] at a table for 2.0; everyone else was at tables of ten. Each person had an
ivory place card embossed in gold English and Chinese characters and chopsticks
engraved with his or her name.

The Americans had been briefed on how to behave at Chinese banquets.
Everyone had been issued chopsticks and urged to practice ahead of time. Nixon
had become reasonably adept, but national-security adviser Elenry Kissinger
remained hopelessly clumsy. CBS News anchor Walter Cronkite shot an olive
into the air. . . .

The lazy Susans spun, laden with duck slices with pineapple, three-colored eggs,
carp, chicken, prawns, shark fin, dumplings, sweet rice cake, fried rice, and in a nod
toward Western tastes, bread and butter.

Wu Liande’s effort to introduce the so-called “hygienic dining table,” or
lazy Susan, therefore, was not in vain. Over time, the Chinese have indeed
realized the importance of adopting a hygienic eating style. While few
families, save for some wealthy ones, have a lazy Susan on their dining
table, it is quite common to find this round, rotatable platform in restau-
rants in today’s China and across Asia. At formal or state dinners, such as
the occasion described at which US President Nixon and his entourage
were entertained, a lazy Susan is almost indispensable in that it best dis-
plays the variety of the dishes the Chinese have prepared for the guests to
sample and savor. Banquets remain “very ceremonious” in China, just as
Matteo Ricci discovered in the late sixteenth century.

Despite the detailed description, the Western media did not specify
whether or not the Nixons and US officials, while eating at lazy Susans,
were provided with a serving spoon or a pair of serving chopsticks to first
bring food to their plates. Probably they were not because it was a dignified
occasion and waiters would most likely have served the food to their
plates; the guests just needed to use their own chopsticks to move the
food from the plates to their mouths. But today, most Chinese dining in
public would follow Wu Liande’s advice, using a serving spoon or a pair of
serving chopsticks, or gongkuai, to first transport the food items to their
own bowls before bringing them to their mouths. Indeed, not only do they

Margaret MacMillan, “Don’t Drink the Mao-tai: Close Calls with Alcohol, Chopsticks,
Panda Diplomacy and Other Moments from a Colorful Turning Point in History,”
Washingtonian^ February i, 2007. Here MacMillan tries to compliment Nixon’s adept-
ness in using chopsticks, but his success seems to be on relative terms. In his memoir, Dirck
Halstead, an American photographer who witnessed the occasion, recalls instead that “We
watched as President Nixon made a painful attempt to use his chopsticks on his Peking
Duck.” “With Nixon in China: A Memoir,” The Digital Journalist, January 2005.

158

Chopsticks: a cultural and culinary history

use gongkuai while eating out, but they also use them while entertaining
their guests at home. Chopsticks users are now highly aware of the need to
practice hygienic dining, even though this means that they have to remem-
ber the separate roles (public vs. private) assigned to the chopsticks.

Hygiene awareness has not only modified the communal eating tradition,
but it has also changed people’s attitudes toward restaurant chopsticks.
As mentioned in previous chapters, various sorts of public eateries (inns,
lodges, tea-houses, restaurants, etc.) had existed in China for centuries,
beginning as early as in the Han period - Ota Masako actually believed
that the tradition for the Chinese to eat out had started during the
Warring States period (475-221 bce) and that it also helped promote
chopsticks use among them.^*^ If this were the case, then one could expect
that as they were inexpensive and easy to make, it would not take long
for chopsticks to be offered at those dining places for the convenience
of customers. However, since the notion of hygiene was by and large
absent in traditional societies, the sanitary condition of those public
utensils varied tremendously. Isabella Bird (1831-1904), an English
writer and globe-trekker, went to Asia in the second half of the nineteenth
century. Her journal records her negative impression of the unsanitary
conditions in China. Having witnessed poor laborers (whom she called
“coolies”) eating meals at a roadside eatery, she writes: “On each table a
bunch of malodorous chopsticks occupies a bamboo receptacle. An
earthen bowl with water and a dirty rag are placed outside for the use
of travellers, who frequently also rinse their mouths with hot water.
Clearly, those chopsticks appeared squalid because they were not cleaned
on a regular basis.

As people’s concern about food hygiene increased, so did their demand
for clean chopsticks at public eateries. To meet the demand, restaurants
seem to have two solutions. One is to develop a regime to sanitize regularly
the chopsticks placed in the receptacles and the other is to let customers use
disposable, or one-time-use, chopsticks made of cheap wood. In the latter
case, each customer is given a new pair of chopsticks every time s/he comes
to eat a meal and these are thrown away after use. As of today, both
methods are popular, though disposable chopsticks seem more favored
simply because they look new, unused before by others. Disposable chop-
sticks are usually prepackaged in a paper or plastic sleeve, with two sticks
connected together - users need to snap them apart before use. For many.

Ota, Hashi no genryu o saguru, 229-246.

Isabella Bird, The Yangtze Valley and Beyond (Boston: Beacon Press, 1985), 193-194.

“Bridging” food cultures in the world

159

this requirement ensures that the chopsticks are new and clean. In Chinese,
disposable chopsticks are called yicixing kuaizi (one-time-use chopsticks),
but they are also referred to as weisheng kuai (hygienic chopsticks),
suggesting they are perceived as sanitary by the public. By comparison,
one can always question the cleanness of the chopsticks given by restau-
rants, even if they look clean, not “malodorous” as Isabella Bird found a
century or so earlier.

Disposable chopsticks are a Japanese invention. As described in
Chapter 4, the earliest chopsticks found in Japan were made of wood
and were discarded, as scholars suspect, after use by construction work-
ers at some ancient sites. According to Isshiki Hachiro, disposable chop-
sticks, or waribashi, first appeared in some seafood restaurants in the
mid-Tokugawa period, or the eighteenth century. The name waribashi
(lit. split chopsticks) describes how they are connected at one end, requir-
ing their users to split them into two sticks before putting them into use.
Made usually of wood, sometimes also of bamboo, disposable chopsticks
are generally shorter than the reusable ones, such as lacquered wooden
chopsticks and, in more recent years, plastic chopsticks. Compared with
the reusable varieties, disposable chopsticks are far more popular in
Japan; they are present in almost all kinds of eateries, be it a classy restaurant
or a street food stand. Throwing away wooden chopsticks after use regis-
tered Shintoist influences, as discussed in Chapter 6, but the heightened
hygiene awareness of modern times has also reinforced the practice, turning
it into a powerful and prevalent trend in Japanese society today.

Over time, the tendency to use disposable chopsticks in public eateries
has spilled over to Japan’s neighbors; first to South Korea and Taiwan
and, from the late 1980s on, to China and, more slowly, Vietnam. Yet the
degree of their popularity varies notably. While in Japan disposable chop-
sticks are used at restaurants of almost all levels, outside Japan, disposable
chopsticks tend to be found in smaller cafes and restaurants, such as fast-
food chains and takeout places. As of today, disposable chopsticks have
the least appeal to the Vietnamese who prefer instead the reusable variety,
such as those made of plastic or bamboo. Thanks to the tradition of using
metal utensils, Koreans also use fewer disposable chopsticks than do the
Japanese and Chinese.

This seems to be the experience of Rachel Nu\ver, a New York Times reporter who writes:
“if you are in the mood for Vietnamese food, you’ll probably be dining with the plastic
variety [of chopsticks], while Korean restaurants tend to go with metal.” “Disposable
Chopsticks Strip Asian Forest,” New York Times, October 24, 2011.

i6o Chopsticks: a cultural and culinary history

But in China, disposable chopsticks have become ubiquitous. China is
also the leading exporter of disposable chopsticks in the world. This ought
not to be so surprising, for since the late 1970s when the country reopened
its doors to the outside world, it quickly became the “factory of the
world,” manufacturing almost all the products one can think of and
exporting them to countries around the world. The period from the late
1970S onward also witnessed a growing trend among the Chinese to adopt
the custom of using disposable chopsticks at restaurants. Disposable chop-
sticks have also become more commonly found at company and school
canteens, dining halls and cafes than their reusable cousins, made either of
wood, bamboo or plastic. Needless to say, this switch from reusable to
disposable chopsticks reflects the rising interest in hygienic dining among
their users. To fight the spread of disease, the Chinese government at once
also encouraged the use of disposable chopsticks. The purchase of dispos-
able chopsticks thus skyrocketed in a country where only a few decades
ago the reusable variety had been the most common. “Throwaway chop-
sticks,” states one observer, “are now used in all but the poorest and the
most expensive restaurants throughout China. The poor ones reuse bam-
boo chopsticks after cursory washing. The expensive ones prefer sanitized,
lacquered-wood chopsticks. All the rest use disposable wooden
chopsticks.

The demand for disposable chopsticks therefore is great, and growing.
One estimate puts it that “Each year, the equivalent of 3 .8 million trees go
into the manufacture of about 57 billion disposable pairs of chopsticks in
China.” Of the 57 billion pairs, half of them are used in China; among the
other half, seventy-seven percent are used by the Japanese, twenty-one
percent by South Koreans and the remaining two percent by US consum-
ers. Another estimate goes higher: in China alone, 45 billion pairs of
disposable chopsticks are used and thrown away every year.^^ The highest
figure is also the most recent, put out in March 2013, which states that as
many as 80 billion pairs of one-time-use chopsticks are discarded in China
every year!^^

Disposable chopsticks also play a major role in popularizing Asian
foods, and Chinese food in particular, outside Asia. The global spread of

Yang Zheng, “Chopsticks Controversy,” New Internationalist, 311 (April 1999), 4.
Nuwer, “Disposable Chopsticks Strip Asian Forest,” and Dabin Yang, “Choptax,” Earth
Island Journal, 21:2 (Summer 2006), 6.

Malcolm Moore, “Chinese ‘Must Swap Chopsticks for Knife and Fork’,” The Telegraph,
March 13, 2013. The estimate was given at a speech by a delegate to the People’s Congress
who proposed to ban disposable chopsticks.

“Bridging” food cultures in the world i6i

Chinese and Asian foods began when Asians emigrated to neighboring
regions, first to parts of Southeast Asia and later, from the iSoos, to such
faraway continents as Australia, Europe and North and South America.
The initial reactions to Asian foods, which were usually found only in the
Chinatowns then emerging in port cities (e.g. San Francisco which has the
oldest Chinatown in the US), by non-Asians were apathetic and distrustful.
But as time went on, especially after World War II, Asian and Chinese
foods found more acceptance, serving not only immigrant communities of
Asians, but also non-Asians. From the 1960s, according to J. A. G.
Roberts, a trend of globalization of Chinese food began to occur -
Chinese food gained an unprecedented popularity among consumers in
Europe and America. Since then, the trend has not only continued but
has risen steadily. In the United States, while the number of authentic
Chinese restaurants has increased notably in major cities, small takeout
places have also popped up in towns throughout the country, whether they
are in New York or New Mexico, Connecticut or Colorado. And when
customers pick up their order, a pair or two of disposable chopsticks in
paper sleeves are usually stuck inside the food bag. Indeed, in tandem with
that in Asia, it has been a growing trend for Asian restaurants around the
world to provide disposable chopsticks to their customers. The popularity
of Chinese food is also shown in movies and TV series. In such popular hits
as Seinfeld, Friends, ER and Grey’s Anatomy, one often sees scenes in
which characters eat Chinese food from takeout boxes, using disposable
chopsticks. If chopsticks are a cultural “bridge” linking Asia to the world,
the disposable kind ought perhaps to take the most credit.

However, the rising demand for disposable chopsticks around the world
has caused some concern. Indeed, begun as a thrifty way to use wood scraps,
disposable chopsticks are now perceived by some as an environmental
hazard, causing deforestation not only in Asia but also around the world.
According to a report by the United Nations in 2008, 10,800 square miles
of Asian forest are disappearing each year. Manufacturers thus have
turned to wood resources elsewhere. As early as in 2006, a subsidiary of
Japan’s Mitsubishi Group was reportedly cutting down centuries-old

In the United States in i960, there were over 6000 Chinese restaurants, which employed
more workers than those working in laundries, the other traditional occupation for
Chinese immigrants. By 1980, the number of Chinese restaurants in the United States
and Canada had risen to 7796, constituting nearly thirty percent of all the ethnic restau-
rants. See Roberts, China to Chinatown,, 164-165. As of today, the number of Chinese
restaurants in the US is estimated at 40,000.

i62 Chopsticks: a cultural and culinary history

aspen groves in western Canada to make 8 million pairs of disposable
chopsticks per day. In the United States, a company in Georgia is manu-
facturing and exporting large quantities of wooden chopsticks to Asia,
using its native gumwood.^’

The main appeal of disposable chopsticks is that they are seen as more
sanitary than the reusable variety. Most Japanese, as put pithily by Yuki
Komayima, former head of the Canadian Chopstick Manufacturing
Company, simply “don’t want a chopstick that has been used by some-
one else.” This is both hygienic and spiritual because according to tradi-
tional Shinto belief, one’s chopsticks carry one’s spirit, which cannot
be cleaned off by washing. This is particular to traditional Japanese
culture. But still, few chopsticks users would use chopsticks unsanitized.
In China where concerns about food safety have run high in recent years,
many Chinese do not trust restaurant chopsticks to have been washed
thoroughly; they would rather choose the disposable type, believing it to
be more sanitary. Disposable chopsticks, however, are not always as
clean as one thinks. When they are manufactured in factories, they are of
course sanitized before being put into individual packages. But ironically,
the problem arises in the sanitization process because the usual way to
clean and sterilize the chopsticks once they are made is to apply various
chemicals, which include paraffin, hydrogen peroxide and insect repel-
lent. And to prevent the sticks from turning yellow, black or moldy,
and to help them keep their brand-new look, some manufacturers
also use sulfur dioxide to polish them. All these chemicals, needless
to say, are harmful to human health, especially if applied without
proper supervision. The Chinese government has now set up production
standards, forbidding or curtailing the use of those chemicals. However,
as disposable chopsticks are made of cheap wood, they need to be
bleached and polished in order to have a presentable appearance. Using
chemicals is the most economic way. Also, though disposable chopsticks
are mass produced nowadays, this does not mean that they are always
manufactured in large and well-managed factories that abide by govern-
ment regulations. Instead, they are more commonly manufactured in

Nuwer, “Disposable Chopsticks Strip Asian Forest” and “Life-Cycle Studies: Chopsticks,”
World Watch, 19:1 (January/February 2006), 2.

Nuwer, “Disposable Chopsticks Strip Asian Forest” and “Life-Cycle Studies: Chopsticks.”
Citing a Japanese study, Wilson writes that the Japanese have a strong distaste for reusable
chopsticks, even if they are cleaned. Consider the Fork, 200.

Jane Spencer, “Banned in Beijing: Chinese See Green over Chopsticks,” The Wall Street
Journal, February 8, 2008.

“Bridging” food cultures in the world

163

small workshops with a problematic environment, at least according to
news reports.^*

While significantly contributing to the popularization of Asian foods
around the world, disposable chopsticks therefore have their undeniable
drawbacks: one is the issue about their cleanliness and the other is the
environmental problem, or deforestation, to which their popularity may
have contributed. There is not much dispute about how to ensure their
sanitization; closely monitoring the manufacturers and making sure that a
safe method is applied in the process is the best way. With respect to
whether disposable chopsticks have exacerbated deforestation, however,
there have been differing opinions. China has become the largest producer
of disposable chopsticks because the disposable-chopsticks industry has
contributed to the country’s economic boom, employing over 100,000
people, mostly in Northeast China. “The chopsticks industry,” says Lian
Guang, founder and president of the Wooden Chopsticks Trade
Association in Heilongjiang Province, “is making a great contribution by
creating jobs for poor people in the forestry regions.” Besides the economic
benefit, Lian adds, the industry does not chop down valuable trees to make
the chopsticks that are used and discarded within thirty minutes of a usual
mealtime. Instead, disposable chopsticks are typically made from such
fast-growing woods as birch and poplar, as well as bamboo, which is an
abundant plant. In other words, like their predecessors in early Japan,
today’s disposable chopsticks are made of leftover wood that is not useful
for other industries.

Be that as it may, the environmental cost remains a concern for
some because of the high demand for chopsticks around the world.
Environmentalists estimate that if China (only) consumes 45 billion pairs
of disposable chopsticks per year, Z5 million trees must fall each year to
meet the demand - not only birch and poplar but also cottonwood, spruce
and aspen. Up till 2006, as the world’s leading producer, China had
shipped 180,000 tons of disposable chopsticks to other countries, with
Japan being the most favored destination. Yet compared with Japan,
which boasts a forest coverage rate of sixty-nine percent, the highest in
the world, China is short of trees; its forest coverage rate is less than
fourteen percent. Of course, the rapid pace of deforestation in China is

Nuwer, “Disposable Chopsticks Strip Asian Forest”; “Life-Cycle Studies: Chopsticks”;
and Yuan Yuan, “Yicixing kuaizi tiaozhan Zhongguo guoqing” (Disposable chopsticks
challenge China as a country), Liaoivang zhoukan (Outlook weekly), 33 (August 13,
2007).

Spencer, “Banned in Beijing: Chinese See Green over Chopsticks.”

164

Chopsticks: a cultural and culinary history

caused by the country’s overall modernization; it cannot and should not be
attributed solely to the making of disposable chopsticks. But the ubiquity
of disposable chopsticks in the country has spurred some of its citizens,
including a few pop stars, to action, calling for a return to the reusable
type. Other green activists have started the BYOC (Bring Your Own
Chopsticks) movement, asking consumers to use their own utensils while
eating out. A similar campaign - “Let’s Carry Our Own Chopsticks” - is
being waged simultaneously in Japan. The Chinese government imposed a
tax on wooden chopsticks in 2007."^°

At the end of 201 1, hoping to raise public awareness of timber waste in
making disposable chopsticks, 200 college students in China who were
members of Greenpeace East Asia collected 82,000 pairs of them and made
a “disposable forest” that consisted of four large trees, each sixteen feet
high. These chopsticks trees stood in a busy shopping mall, while the
students asked for signatures from spectators on a petition for banning
the disposable utensil nationwide - such major cities as Shanghai and
Beijing have already asked their restaurants to replace disposable chop-
sticks with reusable ones. In Japan, many restaurant owners nowadays no
longer automatically provide disposable chopsticks to their customers;
instead they are only given when asked for. And if eating in, customers
are encouraged to use the reusable variety, stashed in a receptacle on the
table. Japanese companies’ canteens have also gradually replaced throw-
away chopsticks with the reusable type.*^'

At the same time, serious attempts are made among Asians to recycle
throwaway chopsticks. As they are made of wood, disposable chop-
sticks, once collected, can be turned into other useful items. Several
Japanese companies are doing exactly that by making paper, facial
tissues and particleboard from throwaway chopsticks."^^ Some scientists
have experimented with ways to gasify waste disposable wooden or
bamboo chopsticks to generate synthesis gas and hydrogen energy.
Others have attempted to extract glucose from them to help produce
ethanol as well as to recycle their fiber into making polylactic acid (PLA),
a widely useful polyester in industry and medicine. At present, these

Moore, “Chinese ‘Must Swap Chopsticks for Knife and Fork’”; Nuwer, “Disposable
Chopsticks Strip Asian Forest” and “Life-Cycle Studies: Chopsticks.”

Spencer, “Banned in Beijing: Chinese See Green over Chopsticks”; “Chopped
Chopsticks,” The Economist^ 316:7665 (August 4, 1990); and Nuwer, “Disposable
Chopsticks Strip Asian Forest.”

Nuwer, “Disposable Chopsticks Strip Asian Forest.”

“Bridging” food cultures in the world

165

ideas have not gone beyond the experimental stage. But they are
certainly noteworthy and with significant potential. As 1.5 billion people
use chopsticks to convey food on a daily basis and many of them (still)
use the disposable type, there is no shortage of chopsticks to industrialize
any of the experiments, benefitting people in Asia and around the world.
Once that happens, or once ways of reusing waste chopsticks are effec-
tively and broadly adopted, our story of chopsticks will come full circle:
through history, chopsticks have become a popular dining tool because
they are convenient and economical. They can retain and expand on
these two essential features to better serve people in the years to come.

Kung-Yuh Chiang, Kuang-Li Chien & Cheng-Han Lu, “Hydrogen Energy Production
from Disposable Chopsticks by a Low Temperature Catalytic Gasification,” International
Journal of Hydrogen Energy, 37:20 (October 2012), 15672-15680; Kung-Yuh Chiang,
Ya-Sing Chen, Wei-Sin Tsai, Cheng-Han Lu & Kuang-Li Chien, “Effect of Calcium Based
Catalyst on Production of Synthesis Gas in Gasification of Waste Bamboo Chopsticks,”
International Journal of Hydrogen Energy, 37:18 (September 2012), 13737-13745;
Cheanyeh Cheng, Kuo-Chung Chiang 6c Dorota G. Pijanowska, “On-line Plow
Injection Analysis Using Gold Particle Modified Carbon Electrode Amperometric
Detection for Real-time Determination of Glucose in Immobilized Enzyme Hydrolysate
of Waste Bamboo Chopsticks,” Journal of Electroanalytical Chemistry, 666 (Eebruary
2012), 32-41; Chikako Asada, Azusa Kita, Chizuru Sasaki 6c Yoshitoshi Nakamura,
“Ethanol Production from Disposable Aspen Chopsticks Using Delignification
Pretreatments,” Carbohydrate Polymers, 85:1 (April 2011), 196-200; Yeng-Fong Shih,
Chien-Chung Huang 6c Po-Wei Chen, “Biodegradable Green Composites Reinforced by
the Fiber Recycling from Disposable Chopsticks,” Materials Science & Engineering: A,
(March 2010), 1516-1521.

Conclusion

To end this book, I would like to share a personal story. When I was four
or five, my mother, who has been a busy career woman all her life, sat me
down one afternoon, asking me to practice the correct use of chopsticks.
Of course, as a child growing up in China, I had been using chopsticks,
along with a spoon, to eat before then. But my mother thought that I had
reached the right age to learn to use chopsticks the right way. She taught
me the correct method and asked me to clasp and move my toy wooden
blocks spread on the table. What a long and grueling afternoon! I did not,
initially, feel natural holding and using the chopsticks in the way she taught
me. But in the end, I got used to it. And I have been using the utensil this
way ever since.

I assume my experience was not uncommon among my generation,
for as I was growing up, I saw many people use chopsticks the same
way. Of course, I also saw some others who used the utensil in their own
self-developed ways. Honestly, I must say that I find my way, or the way
I learned from my mother, both more elegant and effective. In more recent
decades, as an academic, I have traveled extensively across Asia. I have
seen that most Japanese, Vietnamese and Koreans hold chopsticks in the
same way that I do. How is this so? Did they have similar childhood
experiences? Why do so many people in the region, or in the chopsticks
cultural sphere, bother to learn to use the implement to convey foods?

I do not think I have found all the answers to these, and other related
questions readers might have, in researching this book. For instance, I have
not been able to locate a book - a manual or an instruction guide - from
the past that teaches people how to use chopsticks correctly. I guess the
way my mother taught me was also how she had learned to use chopsticks

i66

Conclusion

167

herself from her parents when she was young. I have no idea how early
this seemingly universal method for chopsticks use was developed and
adopted among chopsticks users inside the zone. What I have found is as
follows. There were multiple reasons why the Chinese and other Asians
learnt to use chopsticks in carrying food to their mouths, even though it
requires more practice than using a spoon, a fork and a knife. The first,
perhaps also the most obvious reason, was in order to eat cooked food. In
1964, Claude Levi-Strauss (1908-2009), the legendary French anthro-
pologist, published a seminal work. The Raw and the Cooked, in which
he analyzed the part cooking played in bridging the worlds of humans
and nature, or culture and nature. To him, this was a universal stage of
civilizational development across the globe. In the book, Levi-Strauss
cited several cases from different cultures and concluded that cooking,
even a symbolic act of cooking, became a way to transform a person,
changing him/her into a new phase of physiological development, or from
“raw” to “cooked.” “The conjunction of a member of the social group
with nature must be mediatized,” Levi-Strauss observed, “through the
intervention of cooking fire, whose normal function is to mediatize the
conjunction of the raw product and the human consumer, and whose
operation thus has the effect of making sure that a natural creature is at
one and the same time cooked and socialized [italics in the original].”
Interestingly, the French scholar also noted that utensils played “a medi-
atory function” between nature and culture.^

The “raw” (sheng) and the “cooked” (shu) were two concepts, or
signifiers, frequently used in ancient China to mark different levels of
civilizational development in their known world. That is, a civilized soci-
ety, such as their own as the Chinese believed, was “cooked” in contrast to
barbaric or “raw” societies who were usually located on the margins of
their cultural realm. The word for China in Chinese is Zhongguo, which is
customarily rendered in English as the “Middle Kingdom.” Yet the term
also denotes the center/periphery binary in geography, as the cradle of
Chinese civilization was traditionally believed to be in North China,
located roughly in the center of mainland Asia. When they described
the differences between their society and that of the inhabitants away
from the center, the Chinese applied the two terms raw and cooked, or
sheng and shu, quite literally and considered eating cooked or raw food a
demarcation of cultural differences. The phrase rumao yinxue (literally

^ Claude Levi-Strauss, The Raw and the Cooked: Introduction to a Science of Mythology: /,
trans. John & Doreen Weightman (New York: Harper 6c Row, Publishers, 1969), 334-336.

i68

Conclusion

meaning eating haired - or raw - animal meat and drinking fresh blood),
therefore, became a standard expression, indiscriminately used by the
ancient Chinese in North China to accentuate the barbarity of the other
groups, regardless of whether they were the nomads from the Mongolian
Steppe or the mountain people south of the Yangzi River. Indeed, for the
Chinese, comments Frank Dikotter, “The consumption of raw food was
regarded as an infallible sign of savagery that affected the physiological
state of the barbarian.”^

The Chinese preference for cooked food was also extended to drinking
water: many of them prefer boiled or warm water instead of cold water.
By the Tang period, tea had become a popular beverage throughout the
land. In subsequent centuries, tea also spread to the neighboring regions in
East Asia and beyond. If the Chinese believed that eating cooked food
distinguished their culture from their neighbors’, then drinking boiled
water flavored by tea leaves, instead of the unboiled - “raw” - water,
would certainly achieve a similar effect. Tea drinking, as mentioned in the
Introduction, played its part in facilitating the wide use of chopsticks as an
eating tool in Asia.

Drawing on Claude Levi-Strauss’s thesis, cooking food and boiling
water thus help transform humans from nature to culture. In this process,
utensils use also played a part. This is the second observation I have made
in this book. The example given by Levi-Strauss was the contrast between
roasting and boiling. Both were/are popular ways of cooking, of course.
But to Levi-Strauss, there are differences: “the roast can be placed on
the side of nature, and the boiled on the side of culture,” for boiling entails
the use of a receptacle, “which is a cultural object.” In other words, though
roasting and boiling both use fire, the former exposes food directly to
fire, a form of nature, whereas the latter works through a cultural media-
tion.^ The Chinese, too, considered the use of utensils in handling food a
cultural, or cultured, sign. During the Tang period, contacts between the
Chinese and outsiders, some from as far as Central Asia, were quite
frequent; Buddhism, which entered East Asia no later than the second
century, played a role in facilitating such cultural exchanges. Not only
did Chinese Buddhists make pilgrimages to India and other Buddhist
kingdoms in South and Southeast Asia, but Korean and Japanese

^ Frank Dikotter, The Discourse of Race in Modern China (Hong Kong: Hong Kong
University Press, 1992), 9.

^ Claude Levi-Strauss, The Origin of Table Manners: Introduction to a Science of
Mythology, trans. John & Doreen Weightman (New York: Harper 6c Row, Publishers,
1978), 479-480.

Conclusion

169

Buddhists and travelers also came to visit Tang China - some of them
staying there for a long period of time. In Chinese travelers’ accounts,
many authors quickly noticed and recorded how the natives still used their
hands to convey food to their mouths.'* Yet thanks to Tang cultural
influences, all this was about to change. From the seventh century onward,
as I have detailed in this book, the chopsticks cultural sphere took shape;
more and more people in the region adopted the dietary custom of eating
with utensils.

If East Asians believe that using utensils to convey foods amounts to
cultured behavior, using chopsticks in particular is a result of the changing
food production, preparation and consumption in the region. The fact that
cooked rice, one of the staple grains in the zone, can be carried in
lumps (thanks to its consistency) with a pair of chopsticks, facilitated the
implement being widely used for transporting both grain and nongrain
foods. This is a dietary custom commonly seen in East and Southeast Asia
today but which goes back as early as at least of the eleventh century. Yet
the real push for chopsticks use, I suggest, came from the growing appeal of
floured wheat products, which occurred in China from the first century
and elsewhere in the continent from a later period. In particular, eating
noodles and dumplings rendered the spoon, which had been the primary
eating implement across the area, less useful. In other words, the changing
ways of food production and preparation exerted a major impact on the
choice of utensils by their users. Chopsticks became a ubiquitous eating
device because of the grain staples people grew and consumed in the
region.

Compared with other eating tools, chopsticks have an obvious
advantage - they are economical and easy to make from many common
materials. So the popularity of chopsticks use by and large followed a
bottom-up route: the instrument was more readily adopted as the sole
eating device by people of the lower social strata than those of the upper
echelon; the latter clearly had other tools available to them. Yet at the same
time, chopsticks gained ground at the expense of other eating implements
also because of the development of table manners and rudimentary con-
cern for food cleanness and hygiene. Although I have not located a manual
on using chopsticks in history, there is a sizable body of literature on dining

My discussion here draws on a keyword search, using bizhu, in the Siku quanshu (Complete
Library of the Four Treasures) database, the largest collection of texts on imperial China,
which shows that the Chinese usually noted that other Asians outside their cultural realm
did not use utensils for meals.

170

Conclusion

etiquette, habits and customs, originating as early as the age of Confucius,
or the fifth century bce. The eating instructions given by those compendia
were mostly targeted at keeping up appearances and maintaining polite-
ness toward others, which also reflected, perhaps indirectly, an interest in
keeping the food clean and hygienic. Whether one is rich or poor, these are
legitimate concerns regarding food consumption. Given their nimbleness
and slim shape, chopsticks have enabled their users to pick up whatever
they desire swiftly in the bowl or plate. Of course, to do so requires one to
use chopsticks skillfully and to follow the customary chopsticks etiquette.
As we have seen, this etiquette shares many similar characteristics across
the chopsticks cultural sphere. One thing is quite clear: chopsticks are not
an enabler for “double dipping” in food, as many outside the zone might
believe on first sight. On the contrary, I would like to argue, their proper
use actually helps people to alleviate concerns, perhaps most economically
in a pre-modern age, about contaminating food while sharing it with
others. In a modern age, despite the concerns about deforestation, dispos-
able wooden chopsticks have become a convenient means for people to eat
foods hygienically, for using disposable plastic utensils (which are harder
to break down than wood) as an alternative might be environmentally
more damaging.

Lastly, I now believe I understand the reason why instructions for
chopsticks use went unwritten for many centuries. For among their
users, this instrument has been interwoven, naturally and seamlessly,
into the basic fabric of their daily lives. Using it to convey foods is an
essential experience of how one grows up in the chopsticks cultural sphere.
Given how indispensable they are, chopsticks thus become much more
than a mere eating tool. That the Japanese call the utensil “the sticks for
one’s life” is a case in point, for chopsticks are, for the Japanese as well as
for other Asians, a symbol for life. This is suggested by the great number of
folktales, fables, fairytales, myths and legends about chopsticks and their
use that have appeared in the region. While growing up, children not only
learn how to hold the sticks correctly with their fingers, they are also told
these stories by their parents and grandparents until they remember them
by heart and can retell them to their children in future years. In sum, having
accompanied and served the people in regions of East and Southeast
Asia for several millennia, chopsticks and their use have become a living
tradition. This tradition lives on with life itself.

Glossary

baigu

baxianzhuo

bing

bizhu

cai

char kway teow

chengre chi

chhd-koe-tiau

chi

chifan

chirirenge

chizhu

chojubashi

damifan

dianxin

ding

eisei

enjubashi

enmeibashi

enmusubibashi

fan

fangzhuo

fenshizhi

•ztt-

#fI

172

Glossary

fukujubashi

fun

geng

gohan o taberu

gongkuai

gongshi

gongyi zhu

Guanzhong

hakurai no hashi

harenohashi

hashi

hashisugi shinko

hashiwatashi

heshizhi

honzen ryori

Houji

hua

huangliang

hubing

huchuang

huiyu zhu

huntun

huren

ichizen

itadakimasu

jia

jiaochuang

jiaozi

jikabashi

jinye jiaoliu

jinzhu

jiugu

jizhu

juzhu

kagezen

Glossary

173

kaiseki-ryori

kang

kangzhuo

katakuchibashi

kenohashi

Kentoshi

Kenzuishi

kodama

kogei bashi

kuaile

kuaizi

kuaizi sben

lamian

Hang

liucbi

liugu

luodi

maifan

makuramesbi

manabasbi

mantou

mayoibasbi

meimeizen

mianbing

miancba

miotobasbi

nabemono

namidabasbi

Nanyue

neburibasbi

nensbitsumai

nuo

nuribasbi

obasbi

obasbizomeisbiki

mmm

i¥i

litif

111?

174

Glossary

oiwaibashi

okuizomebashi

qin

quangeng

reibashi

rikyubashi

rou

rumao yinxue

ryokuchibashi

saguribashi

saibashi

seimei no tsue

shan

shao

shaobing

sheng

shi

shi’an

shinhashi

shinjin kyoshoku

shirakibashi

shizhi

shu

shuanyangrou

shuifan

tairikufu

tangchi

tangfan

tatebashi

tofu

toribashi

touzhu

tungeng

utsuribashi

waribashi

weiqi

tmm

MpW

M'om

tK®

Glossary

175

weisheng
weisheng kuai
wending
wugu
xiafan

xian xiami, xian chifan

xiangzhu

xiaomifan

xiaoshi

xifan

xinggeng

Xiyu

yanggeng

yan

yanxi

yicixing kuaizi

yinzhu

yizi

Yue

Yuenan

yunzi

yuzhu

zen

zeng

zhan

zhima

zhima shaobing

Zhongguo

zhou

zhu

zhubing

zongzi

mi-

i^/im

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Index

A History of Chopsticks Culture in China
(Zhongguo zhu wenhuashi), 17
An Illustrated Record of the Chinese Embassy
to the Goryeo Court during the Xuanhe
Era (Xuanhe fengshi Gaoli tujing), 86
Analects, 26

Anderson, E.N., 18, 59, 97, 99
Aoki Masaru, 96, 97
artistic chopsticks, 57
Ashikaga Yoshikatsu, 129
Ashikaga Yoshimasa, 129
Ashikaga Yoshinori, 129
Assorted Records of Kitchen Matters (Chuji
ruiki), 78, 83
Auden, W. H., 153, 154
Avieli, Nir, 70

Bai Juyi, 63, 135

bamboo chopsticks, 15, 23, 43, 56, 68, 73,
78, 80
baozi, 54
barbecuing, 88
Barber, Kimiko, 2
Barthes, Roland, 10
baxianzhuo. See eight-immortal table
bed-stove table, 104, 105
bench. See chair
bento box, 108
bi (spoon), 5, 18, 40, 45, 64
bing (wheat dough), 50, 51, 52, 61
Bird, Isabella, 158, 159
bizbu (spoon and chopsticks), 6, 44, 45,
60,95

boiling, 4, 21, 30, 40, 60, 88, 168

Bray, Francesca, 36

Bronze Age, 4, 17, 18, 28, 38, 46

Briissow, Harald, 20

Buddhism, 12, 58, 75, 82, 131, 168

cai (nongrain food), 35, 40, 54, 62

Cao Cao, 45

Carletti, Francesco, 145

Ch’oe Pu, 94, loi, 109

chair, 102, 106

Champa rice, 97

Chang, K.C. (Kuang-chih), 29

Chang, Te-tzu, 97

char kway teow (stir-fried noodle), 71

Chen Shou, 44, 45, 74, 133

Chen Youliang, 93

Cheng Lianggui, 14 1

chi (spoon), 18, 45, 63

chirirenge (soup spoon), 118

chizhu (spoon and chopsticks), 45, 95

chopsticks

and Chinese eating habit, 4, 5, 20
and communal eating, 102, 108
and food hygiene, 116, 117, 118, 152,

153. 156, 158, 159

and fortune telling, 129, 130
and meat consumption, 89
and spiritual connection, 127, 13 1
appeal, 3, 4, 9, 14, 15, 35, 98, 145, 146,
165, 168, 169
as cooking tool, 9, 17, 18
as cultural symbol, 13, 21, 22, 123

185

i86

Index

chopsticks (cont.)

as exclusive eating tool, 8, 68, 73,74,95, loi
as gift, 137

as literary metaphor, 14, 139, 140, 141,

142, 143, 144

as mark of civilization, 4, 5, 10, ii, 12, 167
as primary eating tool, 8, 66
as secondary eating tool, 6, 34, 40
as symbol for life, 129, 130, 138, 140, 165
as wedding gift, 13
at New Year celebration, 125
at wedding ceremonies, 13, 123, 124
benefits, 2, 3

combined with knives and forks, 92
compared with fingers, 14
compared with knives and forks, 9, 149,

151, 167

compared with spoon, 5, 6, 118, 167
decline in use, 3

different designs, 77, 83, 84, 85, 102
etiquette, 12, 13, 82, 108, in, 114, 115,

116, 118, 132, 169
festival, 113

for birthday celebration, 125, 129

for drinking tea, 8, 9

for eating dumplings, 54

for eating hot pot, 106, 107, 118

for eating noodles, 6, 7, 8, 54, 130

for eating porridge, 3 3

for eating rice, 13,38, 39,40, 96, 100, 169

for eating stir-fried dish, 61

for expressing emotion, 14, 131, 132, 133,

134, i 35 > 143
for making argument, 4 1
for measurement, 140
for playing music, 136
for proposing marriage, 122
harm, 3
in English, 148
in European languages, 148
in Korean legends, 128
in naming restaurants, 145
in poems, 14, 141, 142, 143
in Vietnamese legends, 128
Japanese design, 73
method, 10, 12, 112, 113, 114, 166
name change, 119, 123
of precious materials, 14, 23, 138
on television, 161
origin, 4, 16, 18, 20, 21, 25, 40
positions on the table, 108

taboos, 112, 113, 114, 116, 118, 127, 132
their relation with spoon, 5, 7, 8, 43, 45
training, 113

used by Asian nomads, 90
used by Japanese, 73, 76, 77, 80
used by Jurchens, 91
used by Kitans, 91

used by Koreans, 6,9, 83, 84, 85, 87, 88, 109
used by Manchus, 92
used by Mongols, 91, 92
used by South Asians,
used by Turks, 56
used by Vietnamese, 69, 73
chopsticks cultural sphere, i, 2, 3, 5, 8, ii,
i3> 2.3, 57, 66, 68, 109, 121, 127
Chronicles of Japan (Nihon shoki), 77,

79, 80

Cixi, Empress Dowager, 24
Classic of History, 105
Classic of Odes (Shijing), 28, 35, 36, 105
Classic of Rites (Liji), 25, 26, 27, 30, 31, 32,
33 > 34 , 42, 46, 94 , III
Collection of Documents of the Song

Diplomatic Relations with the Northern
Regimes (Sanchao beimeng huibian), 90
Collection of Ten Thousand Leaves
(Manydshu), 75, 79, 80
communal eating, 102, 103, 104, 109, no,
115, 117, 118, 154, 155, 158
Confucianism, 44, 66
Confucius, II, 26, 29, 32, 46, 47, 169
Cui Hao, 132
Cui Shi, 51

da Cruz, Caspar, loi
Dampier, William, 148
Dawson, Raymond, 1 1
de Rada, Martin, 147
Dikotter, Frank, 167

disposable chopsticks, 14, 77, 158, 160, 164
appeal, 14, 159, 160, 162, 163
harm, 161, 162, 163
variety, 159
Dong Yue, 88
Dong Zhuo, 45, 52
Dragon Boat Eestival, 70
Dream of the Red Chamber (Elongloumeng),
119

Du Fu, 65, 139, 140
dua (chopsticks), 119
dumplings, 6, 7, 54, 55, 98

Index

187

eight-immortal table, 104, 105, 106
enmusubibashi (lover chopsticks), 121, 122
Ennin, 54, 64, 75, 82
Ennin’s Diary, 54, 82
Essential Techniques for the Peasantry
(Qimin yaoshu), 29, 52, 59, 60, 140
Etiquette, 113

Famous Sites on the West Lake (Xihu
fanshenglu), 138

fan, 25, 26, 61, 62, 63, 65, 95, 100
as grain food, 34, 40, 54
Fan Kuai, 48
Fan Shengzhi, 5 1
Fan Ye, 48

fangzhuo (square table), 104

Feng Menglong, 99, 105

fenshizhi (individual eating style), 102

Fernandez-Armesto, Felipe, 3 7

finger food, 26

fire-sticks, 21, 142

foodway, i, 69, 73, 85

fork, 7, 9, 19

Freeman, Michael, 97

Frois, Louis, 145

Fu Xi (Mi Xi), 50

Gao Chongwen, 9 5

Gao Chu, 132

Gao fixing, 133

geng (stew), 5, 34, 40, 47, 62

gold chopsticks, 137, 138

Golden, Peter B., 5 5

gongyi zhu (artistic chopsticks), 57

Goryeo dynasty, 85, 87, 88

Guan Zhong, 3 2

Han dynasty, 19, 23, 27, 41, 44, 47, 48, 84
Han Feizi, 22, 23, 136
Han Xizai, 103
Han Yu, 62, 63
hashi (bridge), 126
hashi (chopsticks), 119
Hashimoto Keiko, 43, 73, 74, 76, 96
heshizhi (communal eating style), 102
Historical Records of the Three Kingdoms
(Samguk sagi), 85, 86
History of the [Liu] Song dynasty
(Songshu), 134

History of the Goryeo Dynasty
(Goryeosa), 87

History of the Jin Dynasty (Jinshu), 134
History of the Northern Dynasties (Beishi), 85
History of the Southern Qi Dynasty
(NanQishu), 139

History of the Sui (Suishu), 74, 75, 79
History of the Three Kingdoms (San’guozhi),

44 , 74 , 133
Ho Ping-ti, 29
hot pot, 98, 106, 107, 118
its variety, 107, 108
Houji (Ford of Millet), 28
Huan Tan, 50
Hunter, W. C., 150
Huntington, Samuel H., 67, 68
huntun (wonton), 54, 55
huren, 51, 102

Illustrated Record of the Chinese Embassy to
the Goryeo Court during the Xuanhe
Era (Xuanhe fengshi Gaoli tujing), 88
Iryon, 85

Isherwood, Christopher, 153, 154

Ishige Naomichi, 55

Isshiki Hachiro, 2, 67, 68, 73

ivory chopsticks, 22, 73, 136, 137, 139, 158

jade chopsticks, 14, 139, 140, 141

jeotgarak (chopsticks), 119

ji (millet), 30

jia (chopsticks), 23

Jia Sixie, 29, 52, 59, 60, 140

Jiangnan (Yangzi Delta), 99, too, loi

Jianzhen, 82

jiaozi (dumpling), 54

jikabashi (direct chopsticks), no, 116

Joseon dynasty, 22, 87, 94, 115

kami (deity in Japan), 80, 81, 125, 126, 13 1

kang (platform bed), 104

kangzhuo.. See bed-stove table

katakuchibashi (one-ended chopsticks), 83

Kentoshi, 75

Kenzuishi, 75

Kim Pu-sik, 84, 86

Kissinger, Henry, 157

Knechtges, David, 5 1

knife, 9, ii, 19

kogei bashi (artistic chopsticks), 57
Kong Yingda, 25, 32
kuaizi (chopsticks), 119, 123, 152
Kublai Khan, 106

i88

Index

lacquered chopsticks, 8i

Lamb, Corrinne, 151, 152, 153, 154

lamian (noodle), 7, 55, 114

Lan Xiang, 82, 121

lazy Susan, 156, 157

Lee Tsung-dao, 14

Levi-Strauss, Claude, 167

Li Bai, 135, 140

Li Y anshou, 85, 131, 132

Li Yuheng, 119

Hang (millet), 30

Liao dynasty, 90

Lin Hong, 107

Lin Yu-tang, 48

Liu Bang, 41, 48

Liu Bei, 45, 133

Liu Xi, 50, 53

Liu Yun, 17, 56, 57

Liu Yuxi, 130, 131, 135

Longqiuzhuang, 16, 17, 28, 38

Lu Rong, 1 19

Lii Sengzhen, 131, 133

Lu Xu, 48

Lu You, 95, 96, 116

Macartney, Lord George, 148, 149, 151
Macmillan, Margaret, 156
maifan (cooked wheat), 49, 50
manabashi (cooking chopsticks), 80, 83
mantou (steamed buns), 53
Marco Polo, 145

Mawangdui Tombs, 42, 43, 44, 47, 56
meat, 46, 59

in Asian cuisine, ii, 12, 46, 47, 48, 60
meimeizen (one meal per person),

109, no

Mekong River, 69

Memorabilia of the Three Kingdoms
(Samguk yusa), 85
Mencius, ii, 26, 27, 47
Meng Yuanlao, 95, 97
metal chopsticks, 23, 56, 57
and meat consumption, 59
preferred by Koreans, 60, 87, 115
Mexia, Lourenqo, 145

millet, 5, 6, 27, 28, 29, 3 1, 32, 33, 37, 38, 40,
50, 51, 61, 62, 64, 86, 87, 96, 151
as grain food, 5, 6, 25, 29, 31, 35
different from rice, 30, 39, too
milling, 49, 50, 60
Ming dynasty, 8, 63, 93, 96, loi

miotobashi (husband-wife chopsticks), no,
121, 122

Miscellaneous Records of Korea (Chaoxian
zalu), 88
miso soup, 5 5
Mo Zi, 50

Monthly Ordinances for the Four Peoples
(Simin yueling), 51
Mote, Frederick, 1 1
Mukai Yukiko, 43, 73, 74, 76, 96
Mundy, Peter, 147, 149, 150
mutton hot pot (sbuanyangrou), 98, 107,
See also hot pot

naan (bread), 53, 61
nahan (platform bed), 104
Nam Viet (Vietnam), 72
Nanyue {Nam Viet), 72
Needham, Joseph, 36
New Songs at the Jade Terrace (Yutai
xinyong), 140
Ngo Quyen, 72
Nguyen Van Huyen, 69
Night Revels of Han Xizai (Han Xizai
yeyantu), 103
Nixon, Richard, 156, 157
noodles, 6, 7, 8, 54, 71, 98
as grain food, 7, 8
origin, 6

Notes in the Legume Garden (Shuyuan zaiji),
119

nuribashi (lacquered chopsticks), 81

Ohnuki-Tierney, Emiko, 74

oiwaibashi (ceremonial chopsticks), 125, 126

Old Tang History (JiuTang shu), 95

Oliphant, Laurence, 150, 151

Ono no Imoko, 75, 76, 78, 82

Opium War, 149

oracle-bone and bronze inscriptions, 3 1
oracle-bone inscriptions, 30
Ota Masako, 24, 158

pasta complex, 55
Pearl River, 69, 97
Pei Shiqing (Hai Seisei), 75
Pereira, Galeote, 145, 147
pho (rice vermicelli), 71
plastic chopsticks,

porridge, 6, 31, 33, 34, 35, 40, 44, 62, 64
Post, Emily, 113

Index

189

Qianlong, Emperor of Qing dynasty, 149
Qing dynasty, 24, 105, 107, 148
Qu Yuan, 70

rumen (noodle), 7, 114
Random Notes on the Barges (Tuipeng
wuyu), 119

Random Records 0(1604 (Capchin Mallok),
93

Records of Ancient Matters (Kojiki), 77,

79, 80

Records of Buddhist Temples in Luoyang
(Luoyang qielanji), 58
Records of the Grand Historian (Shiji), 37,
41,44,48
Red River, 69, 72
Ricci, Matteo, 146, 157
rice, 8, 28, 50, 58, 64, 65, 69, 73, 87, 97, 99
as grain food, 36, 37, 38, 58
different from millet, 30, 38, 100, 168
its variety, 38, 70, 86, 96, 97
rice cake, 70, 71

Rites of Zhou (Zhouli), 26, 27, 37
Roberts, J. A. G., 144, 161
ryokuchibashi (two-ended chopsticks),

83, 126

Science and Civilization in China, 3 6

Sen no Rikyu, 82

serving chopsticks, no, in, 125,

15s, 156

serving spoon, 118, 155, 156, 157

Shafer, Edward H., 65

Shang dynasty, 3, 17, 18, 28, 33

shao (spoon or ladle), 19

Shen Yue, 134

Shintoism, 81, 125, 131

Shotoku, Prince, 75

shu (millet), 30

Shu Tassei, 96

Shu Xi, 52, 53, 120

si (spoon), 19

Silk Road, 52, 55

silver chopsticks, 56, 57, 60, 114, 137, 138
Sima Qian, 37, 41, 42, 46, 48, 69, 72, 120,
121

Sima Xiangru, 120, 121

Song dynasty, 8, 55, 95, 97, 103, 138

Song Jing, 137

Song Yingxing, 99

soup spoon, 8, 118

spoon, 5, 40, 44, 62, 65, 76, 83, 87, 108,
114, 127

as primary eating tool, 5, 40, 66
compared with chopsticks, 5, 118
for drinking soup, 8, 118
for eating porridge, 63
its relation to chopsticks, 43, 45
origin, 5, 18, 20
steaming, 21, 30, 40
stew, 9, 34, 35, 38, 40, 47, 48, 58, 62,

69, 70

stewing, 21, 60
stir-frying, 60

Stories to Awaken the World (Xingshi
hengyan), 99, 105
su (millet), 30

table, 102, 103, 105, 106
table manners, 12, 13, 109, 113, 131
Tale of the Bamboo Cutter (Taketori
monogatari), 79

Tale of the Hollow Tree (Utsubo
monogatari), 78

Tang dynasty, 6, 9, 46, 51, 54, 56, 57, 63,
65> 75: 133: 168
Tang Su, 108
Tang Xianzu, 138
tangbing (noodle), 53, 61
tangchi (soup spoon), 118
tea, 58, loi, 145, 167
The Cambridge World History of Food, 97
The Chopsticks Diet, 2
The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking
of World Order, 67

The Collection of Ten Thousand Leaves
(Manydshu), 79

The Exploitations of the Works of Nature
(Tiangong kaiwu), 99
The Pillow Book (Makura no soshi), 78
The Plum in the Golden Vase (Jinpingmei),
100, 104

The Procedures of the Engi Era (Engishiki), 78

The Raw and the Cooked, 167

Tomes, Nancy, 117

toribashi (serving chopsticks), no, in

Trieu Da, See Zhao Tuo

utensils

adopted by Asians, 2, 3, 5, 168
as mark of civilization, 3, 5, 10, 1 1,

167, 168

190

Index

utensils (cont.)
in ancient China, 21
reason for, 3, 4, 5, 167, 168

Van Esterik, Penny, 73
Visser, Margaret, 37
Voyages and Descriptions, 148

Wang Chong, 135
Wang Li, 154, 155
Wang Lihua, 59, 65
Wang Mingsheng, 105
Wang Renxiang, 19
Wang Saishi, 61
Wang Shancai, 18
Wang Su, 58

waribashi (disposable chopsticks), 159
Warring States period, 24, 27, 158
Water Margin (Shuihu zhuan), 104, 141
wheat, 6, 49, 62, 64, 98, 151
as grain food, 52, 168
White, Lynn, i, 67, 68
wonton, 54, 55

wooden chopsticks, 14, 15, 23, 56, 68,
81, 159

and Shintoism, 8 1
preferred by the Japanese, 60, 80
Wu Liande, 156, 157

Xia dynasty, 24
Xiang Yu, 48

xiangzhu (ivory chopsticks), 22
Xiao Zixian, 139
xifan (porridge), 63
Xiongnu, 89, 90

Xiyu (Western regions), 51, 53, 55
Xu Jing, 86, 87, 88
Xu Jingbo, 83
Xu Ling, 140

Xu Mengxin, 90
Xue Lingzhi, 62, 65
Xun Zi, 23
Xunzi, 23

Yan Zhitui, 54
Yang Xuanzhi, 58

Yangzi River, 28, 32, 36, 37, 56, 58, 61, 65,
69,96,97
Yao Weijun, 58
Yellow River, 36, 89
yizi (chair), 103

Yu, a legendary ruler in ancient China, 24

Yuan dynasty, 91, 98, 106

Yuan Mei, 14 1

Yuenan (Vietnam), 72

Yun Kuk-Hyong, 93, 94, 99, 109, 115

Zhang Juzheng, 137
Zhang Liang, 4 1
Zhang Qian, 5 2
Zhang Zhongjing, 55
Zhao Kuangyin, 90
Zhao Qi, 27

Zhao Rongguang, 20, 103
Zhao Tuo (Trieu Da), 72, 89
Zheng Xuan, 25, 27, 28
zhou (porridge), 30, 31, 32, 33, 40,

62, 63

Zhou Chi, 142

Zhou dynasty, 18, 22, 25, 26, 30, 36

Zhou Enlai, 157

Zhou Yafu, 41, 42, 46, 48

Zhou, king of Shang dynasty, 22, 136

zhu (chopsticks), 23, 34, 119, 123

Zhu Di, 98

Zhu Yuanzhang, 93, 98, 108
Zhuo Wenjun, 120, 121
zongzi (rice cake), 70

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